Young Oscars Breeding?

[scotty_bob]

Hi There,

We have recently added 2 small Red Tiger Oscars to our tank (about 6 weeks ago), and they are growing quite quickly. One faster than the other.
When we first got them they were about 3 cm's long, now one is about 5cm and the other 7cm.
They get on quite well together, eating the other smaller fish in the tank, and never fighting each other.
They are fed well, we give them a mixture of special oscar pellets for baby oscars, conventional fish flakes, frozen bloodworm pieces, and quite often fresh shrimp caught ourselves from the local lake. As well as eating a few sword tails and tetras that were already in the tank, but that was expected.

Recently, we have noticed them getting very aggressive towards the other fish in the tank (only about 6 others, especially the gourami that is the same size of the biggest oscar), not trying to eat them as they are slightly too big, but chasing them around. And the larger one of the two has been picking up the rocks from the bottom of the tank at the front, and placing them on a pile to the side.

Everything i read makes me think that they are going to breed, but surely they are too young.
Is something stressing them?? or is this normal behaviour.

Any advice is appreciated

Scott and Bec

 

[shroob]

Yeah they are too young to breed successfully, I think oscars get mature at around 7-8". I would think the aggression towards your gourami is just aggression, moving substrate is just a cichlid trait.

Good luck with breeding in the future though, hope you got a big tank

 

[england]

agreed with shroob usually around the 1.5-2year age

 

[darkwolf29a]

Sounds like you have a pair, but they won't start breeding for awhile. Make sure to feed a regular diet, and....don't let them fool you. They'll eat anything. Mine was, particularly, finicky when I first got him. He wouldn't take a pellet to save my booty. LOL I kept trying to give them to him, but he'd turn up his nose. After 3 days, he decided he was hungry enough to try them. Now, he'll anything I put in the tank.

 

[ox5477]

Yeah, they like most fish who are set in a pattern can be finicky with a new food, but once the hunger gets to them, they will eat. With o's too, careful if you choose dither fish. Anything that is smaller than the o's mouth, will end up in it most likely

And as said by shroob, you are going to need a big tank. If your o's breed, they will become aggressive towards any other tank mates and you will need a lot of room for the wigglers to grow out in (that is if you don't have a source where you can unload the babies while still young).

 

[scotty_bob]

Sounds like you have a pair, but they won't start breeding for awhile. Make sure to feed a regular diet, and....don't let them fool you. They'll eat anything. Mine was, particularly, finicky when I first got him. He wouldn't take a pellet to save my booty. LOL I kept trying to give them to him, but he'd turn up his nose. After 3 days, he decided he was hungry enough to try them. Now, he'll anything I put in the tank.

Yeah we are hoping we got a pair, pretty lucky too as we only realised we should have gotten 4 or 5 together when we got them home. One is growing faster than the other, and they are always together.

Thanks for your help!