My Oscar is loosing color.

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Drazn

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 16, 2009
54
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TX
I have a 5'' Tiger Oscar that is loosing his color. When he was in a 10 gallon tank by himself he was fine but now that I placed him in my 100 gallon he is getting lighter in color it seems. I should also add that he has tankmates now (3 x JDs, 1 Jaguar, and Sailfin Pleco). You guys have any ideas? If this is a stupid question please forgive me. I am new to all this and I am trying to learn. :)
 
Could you please post the water parameters? Do you use bright lighting? What color is your substrate? Your oscar is stressed from the move if you just moved him today. They tend to turn pale in response to stress due to insecurity mood or changing water conditions.

:welcome: to MFK by the way!
 
my guess is a 10 gallon tanks temperature differs from the 100 gal and is probably related
 
yar if you moved it today wait till hes settled after a few days
 
I tested the water and it showed a small trace of amonia but everything else was good. The lighting is rather bright now you mention it and I use sand for my substrate.
 
If the sand is white, then that and the bright light cause too much glare for the fish. They'd look faded in this process. If your water is showing ammonia, I'd do another water change if I were you to avoid ammonia poisoning.
 
if it causes to much glare should I change the substrate? I was told sand is excellent for Cichlids. Was I misinformed? Like I said I am new and any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
 
You were not misinformed at all. Sand is okay but combining white sand and bright light is just not an option for most fish. It's too glaring that they tend to look faded thus uglier and some feel too insecured by the environment as a result. You could address this by using pink lights which is slightly dimmer. Adding peat to heavily color the water into brown/yellow can absorb a lot of light thus the oscar feels more comfortable in your tank.
 
is there like dark sand i can get? maybe black sand even?
 
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