# tiger oscar color changes?



## Brother Anthony

Do black Tiger Oscars change coloartion as they age? The O i have is becoming more and more grey as he gets bigger. The O is abouyt 4 inches atm. The fish store said the black coloration would come back once he was settled in the new tank and stress was gone. I do not think this is stressed induced. He also does not have much of the orange/red tiger "stripes" like most do I have seen.

Did I get a poorly breed Oscar?


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## Blu-ray

Hi,

My experience is limited with my pair that I've had since they were 3", and a few of their babies I raised myself. as for them, yeah they lose the intense black of the childhood when they get bigger.

About the orange stripes, my babies lose their white stripes when they go over 2", they become more black at the size of 2" to 6", then when they get close to getting mature ( over 6-8" ) they start getting back those stripes in orange and losing the black.

Here are 3 pictures of one of my pair's babies at the sizes of 2", 5" and 10". it shows the process!




























It might not be general, just my experience. but I'm sure that at the size of 4" you can't tell anything. you have to wait a few more months to see how it will turn out.

Good Luck.


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## oscars4me

I'ts been my experience with all the O's I've owned that there color changes all the time. It can be from stress, illness or just a natural change.


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## Brother Anthony

Alright cool, thank you both! What kind of Oscar is that last...OMG he/she is amazing!


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## Blu-ray

It is the same oscar in all pictures, its called Tiger Oscar. 
my avatar is his mother.


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## Brother Anthony

he is absolutely awesome. Mine has no where near that much color lol. I found a picture of the colors in this thread...its like mine.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=201928

The First picture...that grey on the top and its spreading all over. Also mine does not have that much red/orange ...just couple dots I will still try to get a vid up asap.

Here are the vids...my light scared the poor little guy =( you can see the colors when he hits certain angles.


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## twohuskies

> I found a picture of the colors in this thread...its like mine.
> 
> http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=201928


That's my rescued O! Actually, as he settles in, he's growing like mad and displaying more color. Still nowhere near the beautiful color of the other photo posted, but better color for his, I'm sure, questionable lineage.

I need to update the photos, and will try to do that this weekend. I don't care that he's not the prettiest or most colorful Oscar; my intent was to get him out of the 10G chamber of horrors that he was in.  However he develops is fine with me, because he is SUCH a fun fish!


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## kmuda

The coloration of a Juvie Oscar is never an indication of the coloration of the same fish once an adult. In other words, when picking out an Oscar at the LFS, never let coloration be a driving factor. Let the appearance of health be the driving factor because the way the fish appears as a baby/juvie will not be how it appears as an adult. I always say, let the fish pick you. Pick the fish that is up front, doing the feed me dance when your in front of the tank. Have the LFS feed the fish and choose the one that is aggressively getting after the food. The one that "picks you" may be the dog ugliest fish in the tank, but it does not matter. They are going to change. The ugliest may become the prettiest and the prettiest the ugliest. There is no way of knowing short of buying an adult fish. So you just do not let coloration become a point of selection when choosing baby/Juvie Oscars.

Getting the intense coloration is a matter of three things, water quality, diet, and genetics. If any of the three is lacking, so will the coloration of your fish. The only two we have control over (unless we are breeding the Oscars ourselves) is water quality and diet.

For water quality, keep nitrates below 20ppm and ammonia/nitrite at zero.

For diet, feed quality pellets as the primary component of the diet, with freeze or frozen krill as a treat food. I find that NLS pellets are very good at bringing out intense coloration but I feed my Oscar primarily Hikari Bio-Gold Plus. While I do not get quite as intense coloration using the Bio-Gold, the other benefits make up for it.


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## Blu-ray

Brother Anthony said:


> Mine has no where near that much color lol.


I totally agree with kmuda, as I said before, you can't tell at that size. look at the second picture of mine again, he was simple black at the size of 5" but got a lot of red when he got mature. you have to wait some months. keep the water quality and diet good then he will get as much red as he is capable of genetically. :wink:


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## twohuskies

I second everything kmuda said as well. I feed mine NLS jumbo pellets as his staple, and he gets krill, frozen, and on occasion, some pieces of salad shrimp. I have seen some improvement in his color, and he has certainly grown!


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## Brother Anthony

cool thank you everyone for the help!


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## Blademan

Blu-Ray, thanks for the great progression pics :thumb: Always enjoy progression pics opcorn:


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## angmat

just thought I would contribute to this topic. I have to agree with kmuda, never pick baby oscars for their colors. here are my oscars as juvies & then a few months later

when I first got them they looked like this. pretty ugly huh?









and this is how to turned out when they got bigger. 


















unfortunately I had to rehome these guys due to tank size but now I've got 4 juvies. 2 red & 2 tigers.


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## Dj823cichild

Beautiful Oscars Angmat. The new one I have looks like one on the right he's only 3 inches now though lol. I hope he grows up to be as nice as yours! :thumb:


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