Tiger Oscar Color ?

[SidKarver]

I have a Tiger Oscar. When I bought him he was barely a 2" lil bugger, and he had the neatest looking color and design.

Now he is 6" or so and I've observed his color change rapidly..


90% of the time, his color is a bit dull, and at night I notice he'll go completely black. 'Maybe' once a day, I'll notice him sporting the most amazing and bright tiger print..

What is normally black, turns white! In-turn creating the awesome leopard print. BUT once he realizes I'm watching him, he goes right back to dullish (in about one second).


What gives???

I've seen vids on u-tube and most all of the tiger O's have vivid tiger-like stripes. Why doesn't mine most of the time?

(I should mention he has been like this since I got him 4 months ago, regardless of water quality and tankmates.)

 

[muffywrx]

Mine is doing that right now too, though he isn't 6 inches. Maybe 4 or so. I think they are in transition stage for coloring ... the white thing is a mood thing I think. Mine does that when he is relaxed.

 

[SidKarver]

I should also mention before someone asks;

I feed him a mixed diet of blood worms, live brine shrimp, med-size goldfish, and beef heart, but mostly Hikari cichlid gold.

He grows about an inch a month or more.

My JD'd colors are amazing to say the least. Absolutely stunning. But the Tiger O'... not so much.

 

[SidKarver]

Mine is doing that right now too, though he isn't 6 inches. Maybe 4 or so. I think they are in transition stage for coloring ... the white thing is a mood thing I think. Mine does that when he is relaxed.

I wonder how I can get him to relax?

 

[muffywrx]

He's probably fine. They color out when they get older. Here is a pic of mine lately ... dull as well. His color seems to always be changing, and it is just him. My other two (red and lutino) do not do this.


IMG_5702 by muffywrx, on Flickr

 

[SidKarver]

He's a cool looking tiger O'.. I'm gonna have to do some research on the lutino. I've never heard of one.

 

[muffywrx]

its what pet stores label "albino tiger" ... but there really aren't any albinos in pet stores. they are extremely rare.

 

[SidKarver]

its what pet stores label "albino tiger" ... but there really aren't any albinos in pet stores. they are extremely rare.

I see albinos in my LFS every time.. The have albino tiger O's too. Pretty neat.

I'm in PA.. maybe it's hard to ship them to your area or something?

 

[muffywrx]

No. They mislabel them. To sell them. It's very common in the fish world Easy to call something albino when it actually isn't, just because it is white. True albino oscars have no coloration.

 

[muffywrx]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294408