Oscar behaviour

Question
I have two Oscars, I am pretty sure one male one female since the male has the "growth" on the forehead. When together they battle like two mortal enemies, but I am not able to distinguish if it is mating fighting or territorial. The "female" has ended up with injuries exposing the flesh so I have had to separate them. But now both look miserable....Any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Francisco,
 Male and female oscars are what we call monomorphic, i.e., males and females look the same. Put another way, any differences in the appearance between two fish is not an indication of their sex.  So, you can never tell if that fighting is because they are two males that are fighting for control of the tank, or perhaps courting by a male of a female. The behavior looks exactly the same. The only difference is that in the first case, it ends when one fish kills the other. In the latter case it ends with either one fish killing the other, or they spawn.  That is the challenge of dealing with oscars.

 That said, are you sure that you have oscars?  I have never seen an oscar with a hump on his head, but lots of other cichlids have humps.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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