Is my oscar pregnant?

Question

OK i know they leg eggs so they cant be pregnant but this is the situation. I have a 75 gallon tank with two oscars in it. They are about 8in and they love each other. they swim together blah blah blah. then all the sudden they will start "fighting" locking lips slapping each other in the face with there back fins sometimes i worry there going to rip each others lips off. Ok so the one is bloated but still pooping but seems the bloating wont go away if they are getting ready to lay eggs are they bloated as if they were pregnant?

Answer 1

Well the actions you described sounds very much like you have two younger Oscars, near sexual maturity that just bonded.  The lip locking and tail slapping are all part of the normal ritual Oscar go through.  Since they are both alive, one can safely assume they have now bonded, and these two will stick togeather for life.

If the female is bloated, I'd think, without having any pictures to look at, that it's one of two things.  Either she is storing up eggs, or she has a blockage internally.  You have to factor for the latter as Oscars tend to eat pretty much anything they can fit in their mouth, which includes things they probably shouldn't eat.  You'll want to give it a little more time though and keep monitoring.  My guess is that she's getting ready for the male to create a spawning area.

Answer 2

Here's an intersting site for you to read:  http://www.oscarfishlover.com/index.php/...

Answer 3

It seems like they are getting ready to start a family, what you have just described is classic cichlid courtship behavior. Keep them warm, and well fed, and they should be spawning soon.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

It sound like you have a young pair that is ready to start a family. If you can take any other fish out of that tank so as to give the pair a good chance of mating and taking care of their family it would be a good idea to do so. You should be able to see the breeding tube of the female and maybe even the breeding tube of the male. he breeding tube of the female will be thick and blunt whereas the breeding tube of the male will be thin and pointed. Another thing that you should be seeing is them cleaning off a breeding site to lay their eggs on and keeping the other fish away from this breeding site. This is another clue that it is courtship ritual.Do make sure to keep up on the partial water changes as there will be lots more fish in the tank after the eggs hatch and grow some. They can have several hundred to thousands of eggs at a time and may breed as often as every ten day to two weeks (if they are protecting their eggs and young, this will usually not happen but it could happen that they decide to breed again when they still have young in the tank with then, If they decide to breed before the young have been taken out then they might eat their own young so that these older young do not eat their younger brothers and sisters.

Answer 5

Don't listen to anyone telling you they are fighting. They have a very aggressive courtship behavior, so make sure they do not hurt each other to bad! Also, they will care for the fry, but there first few attempts they may not mate of care for the fry correctly and they will die (The fry not the parents) So don't be upset if the first spawning does not work. If you really want some fry to survive, you can take out some of the eggs and raise them in a 20 long. You feed them newly hatched brine shrimp and micro worms. If they hatch in the aquarium you feed them that also.