Will Oscar Fish Eat Their Eggs?

Oscars -- and cichlids in general -- display an unusual level of parental care, for fish. While most fish treat their eggs as fair game, oscars will actually guard and care for the eggs and their resulting fry. However, every now and then, even oscars try a sample.

  1. Normal Breeding

    • Normally, when oscars breed, both parents guard the nest from other fish. Though not particularly aggressive for large cichlids, oscars get more territorial when breeding and may harass other fish while guarding their nests. Females tend to the eggs more than the males. Female oscars will fan the eggs with their fins. For some reason, females often mouth the eggs. The exact purpose of this behavior is debated, but it is suspected that females may excrete an antifungal substance from their mouths that help protect the developing eggs.

    False Spawnings

    • Sometimes, oscars go through all of their pre-spawning behaviors but don't lay eggs. In cases like this, it may appear that your oscars have spawned and eaten their brood. That's not necessarily the case. There may not have been any eggs to begin with. Oscars may engage in this sort of behavior for months on end before actually spawning.

    Oops

    • Every now and then, oscars accidentally eat their eggs. Most often, this happens with inexperienced oscars on their first spawn. Still, considering that most fish treat their eggs as tasty snacks, oscars are still unusually good parents for a fish. Sometimes, oscars may eat a few eggs when tending to them to keep their strength up while tending to the rest of the spawn. Other times, their parental instincts just seem to misfire and the adults devour the entire spawn.

    Protecting Eggs

    • You can take several steps to make the parents less likely to eat their eggs. For starters, if you keep the parents well-fed, they will find their eggs less tempting. If you don't want to leave anything to chance, you can tend the eggs without the parents. To do this, carefully move the eggs to a separate 10-gallon aquarium, filled with water from the main aquarium. Use strong aeration to ensure water movement over the eggs, and add an antifungal agent -- available online or in pet shops -- to protect the eggs from fungi.