Do I have a Red Tiger Oscar?

Hi there! I got my Oscar, Morty (short for Morticia) on Oct 19th, 2022. When I bought him, he was marked as a Red Tiger Oscar. He has grown quite a bit since getting him but I had assumed he would darken up (all the Red Tiger Oscars I see are black and red) but he has maintained a greenish/orange/black coloring so I was wondering if perhaps he is a green Oscar or a natural? Thanks in advance!

(included one of him as a baby in the store for reference)
(Also if you see tiny dots on him, it’s just micro bubbles on the glass from his water change - it’s not ich I promise!!)

 

Looks like a Tiger Oscar to me.
Has good colors & nice markings.
I believe "Red" is just a descriptive marketing name, not really a true color morph.

 

Looks red to me . I’ve seen 12” red ones so I don’t think it’s going to lose its color.

 

Looks red to me . I’ve seen 12” red ones so I don’t think it’s going to lose its color.

Ahh ok cool! For some reason I thought he was supposed to darken up. Thank you!!

Looks like a Tiger Oscar to me.
Has good colors & nice markings.
I believe "Red" is just a descriptive marketing name, not really a true color morph.

Good to know - thank you!! I thought they were supposed to be darker I guess so his (or her) green-ish head threw me off a bit

 

Couple things you can do. theres' two main factors to getting optimum health and coloration:
water quality, and diet.

Water quality. it can't be stressed enough, never any ammonia or nitrites, water changes before the tank gets to 20ppm nitrates religiously. They will stress some and lose coloration at 20ppm and higher, they will also open up to health issues like HITH if the water isn't clean enough.

Now people will say "varied diet", but the truth is it just needs the right composition for a food that gives the fish all it needs, just a "varied diet" isn't enough if it's missing something, or it's heavy on something it doesn't need.
I hear good things about a food called "New Life Spectrum" for the dietary needs of oscar fish. A food high in Krill will darken the orange further towards red, but I dont' think it's ever going to go deep red, they also tend to not eat enough plant matter, so high in Krill and also high in plant matter helps to get it all it's vitamins it needs.

The black gets grey to green unless the water quality is really high and it has a darker color it's trying to reach in order to be more stealthy, the white wall and the sand isn't doing you any favors to darken the fish up. In essence, the fish has the ability when in top condition to color shift it's pigmentation over time to help it blend a bit better with the environment it's in. if it's darker, the fish will go darker and maintain it, if it's light, the fish will lighten up also and maintain it.
it can also help to use a dark substrate to make the colors "pop" further on the fish, but water and diet are clutch, environment color is for that little "extra"

if you get diet and water tightened up, the fish will be in top condition and showing it's best colors.

they tend to grey out when angry or irritated or upset lets say, and when they are happy and content and feeling froggy and in good health, they tend to show off their best coloration. Water quality and diet are the big two to get there. and if it's still not dark enough for you, try a darker substrate and maybe a black background to put it over the top.

I don't want to get too crazy here with information so will keep this simple, take a look at the picture of your fish from the petstore from Oct. 19th and compare it to the new pictures. Take note and compare the "nostrils" on the fishes snout in both pictures. when it was at the store that area was like the rest of the fish skin toned and flush divots, now the nostrils are pink and kind of swollen.

It's early still and can be corrected, also by a well rounded diet and high water quality, but this is where the HITH starts from. All cichlids have those "nostrils" and that can get infected with bacteria or from a poor immune system that allows the infection, and it cascades from there.

Just want to point this out so you can actually get the top quality appearance fish you want instead of a scarred up Oscar like so many people have.

 

Couple things you can do. theres' two main factors to getting optimum health and coloration:
water quality, and diet.

Water quality. it can't be stressed enough, never any ammonia or nitrites, water changes before the tank gets to 20ppm nitrates religiously. They will stress some and lose coloration at 20ppm and higher, they will also open up to health issues like HITH if the water isn't clean enough.

Now people will say "varied diet", but the truth is it just needs the right composition for a food that gives the fish all it needs, just a "varied diet" isn't enough if it's missing something, or it's heavy on something it doesn't need.
I hear good things about a food called "New Life Spectrum" for the dietary needs of oscar fish. A food high in Krill will darken the orange further towards red, but I dont' think it's ever going to go deep red, they also tend to not eat enough plant matter, so high in Krill and also high in plant matter helps to get it all it's vitamins it needs.

The black gets grey to green unless the water quality is really high and it has a darker color it's trying to reach in order to be more stealthy, the white wall and the sand isn't doing you any favors to darken the fish up. In essence, the fish has the ability when in top condition to color shift it's pigmentation over time to help it blend a bit better with the environment it's in. if it's darker, the fish will go darker and maintain it, if it's light, the fish will lighten up also and maintain it.
it can also help to use a dark substrate to make the colors "pop" further on the fish, but water and diet are clutch, environment color is for that little "extra"

if you get diet and water tightened up, the fish will be in top condition and showing it's best colors.

they tend to grey out when angry or irritated or upset lets say, and when they are happy and content and feeling froggy and in good health, they tend to show off their best coloration. Water quality and diet are the big two to get there. and if it's still not dark enough for you, try a darker substrate and maybe a black background to put it over the top.

I don't want to get too crazy here with information so will keep this simple, take a look at the picture of your fish from the petstore from Oct. 19th and compare it to the new pictures. Take note and compare the "nostrils" on the fishes snout in both pictures. when it was at the store that area was like the rest of the fish skin toned and flush divots, now the nostrils are pink and kind of swollen.

It's early still and can be corrected, also by a well rounded diet and high water quality, but this is where the HITH starts from. All cichlids have those "nostrils" and that can get infected with bacteria or from a poor immune system that allows the infection, and it cascades from there.

Just want to point this out so you can actually get the top quality appearance fish you want instead of a scarred up Oscar like so many people have.

I’m not concerned with making him darker and I did figure that the sandy bottom probably does make him a bit lighter! He color shifts a lot - lighter at the top and a bit darker when on the bottom.
No need to worry about his water quality - he is in a 75gal fully cycled tank alone with 0 nitrites 0 ammonia and usually 8ppm nitrates & never more then 30ppm nitrates (my water is naturally at 8ppm so this is as good as it is going to get). He gets 50% water changes a week and seems to be a happy, healthy, active guy. There is no aquarium light as I’ve read they don’t like bright, but he gets ambient sunlight through the day. I’ve been feeding a mix of hikari’s cichlid gold, some frozen cichlid food (bloodworms, beef heart), mealworms as a treat every once in awhile and a few carnivore sinking pellets (also hikari) for a different challenge (he seems to like looking around the bottom to find the pellets).

I’m a bit concerned that you seem to be saying that he has the beginning stages of HITH. I have my doubts given how healthy he acts and how pristine his environment is, but always better to be safe then sorry! The one thing I will say is that he is an active, feisty fellow and tries to “eat” the bubbles at the top of the water by jumping and often bangs himself on top of the tank. I would guess that, if anything, would be why his nostrils look a little inflamed. But I don’t really know how you make an Oscar stop doing that. But, if anything I’ve said above reads as a red flag to you please let me know!

(some extra info is that the filter is a fluval 407 performance canister filter (rated up to 100gals) & his tank is set to 78F with 2 fluval e200’s on each side of the tank just in case that is relevant!)

 

I’m not concerned with making him darker and I did figure that the sandy bottom probably does make him a bit lighter! He color shifts a lot - lighter at the top and a bit darker when on the bottom.
No need to worry about his water quality - he is in a 75gal fully cycled tank alone with 0 nitrites 0 ammonia and usually 8ppm nitrates & never more then 30ppm nitrates (my water is naturally at 8ppm so this is as good as it is going to get). He gets 35-50% water changes a week and seems to be a happy, healthy, active guy. There is no aquarium light as I’ve read they don’t like bright, but he gets ambient sunlight through the day. I’ve been feeding a mix of hikari’s cichlid gold, some frozen cichlid food (bloodworms, beef heart), mealworms as a treat every once in awhile and a few carnivore sinking pellets (also hikari) for a different challenge (he seems to like looking around the bottom to find the pellets).

I’m a bit concerned that you seem to be insinuating he has the beginning stages of HITH. I have my doubts given how healthy he acts and how pristine his environment is. The one thing I will say is that he is an active, feisty fellow and tries to “eat” the bubbles at the top of the water and often bangs himself on top of the tank. I would guess that, if anything, would be why his nostrils look a little inflamed. But I don’t really know how you make an Oscar stop doing that. But, if anything I’ve said above reads as a red flag to you please let me know

i wouldn't say "insinuating", I was just point it out that it shouldn't look like that and it's usually an early indication of a bacterial infection in cichlids that can lead to HITH. Could be caused by something else, yes even injury. I mentioned it so you could keep an eye on it, no other reason.

By what you are feeding him, he could probably use some algae wafer in the feeding mix for plant matter and vitamin C ect. They would normally get it from the prey they eat in the wild from what the bugs and smaller fish eat as a byproduct, what's in their preys digestive tract, and none of the dried or frozen foods carry a whole lot, unless they are supplementing the foods.

I wish you the best.

 

i wouldn't say "insinuating", I was just point it out that it shouldn't look like that and it's usually an early indication of a bacterial infection in cichlids that can lead to HITH. Could be caused by something else, yes even injury. I mentioned it so you could keep an eye on it, no other reason.

By what you are feeding him, he could probably use some algae wafer in the feeding mix for plant matter and vitamin C ect. They would normally get it from the prey they eat in the wild from what the bugs and smaller fish eat as a byproduct, what's in their preys digestive tract, and none of the dried or frozen foods carry a whole lot, unless they are supplementing the foods.

I wish you the best.

I took out insinuating because I didn’t mean it the way that it came off - my apologies! I appreciate your help and only meant what you said seems to indicate Morty might be sick (which is concerning & was not on my radar!) I’m not an Oscar expert by any means so I didn’t know to look at his nostrils in that way.

mostly he gets Hikari Cichlid Gold and then sometimes Hikari sinking carnivore pellets or Hikari sinking wafers. I can’t remember the frozen food brand unfortunately! I will look into buying the Life Spectrum food!!

Attached photos of the back and some pics from just now! (Well, I tried to at least - doesn’t seem to be working)

sorry again for coming off rude ☹

 

I took out insinuating because I didn’t mean it the way that it came off - my apologies! I appreciate your help and only meant what you said seems to indicate Morty might be sick (which is concerning & was not on my radar!) I’m not an Oscar expert by any means so I didn’t know to look at his nostrils in that way.

mostly he gets Hikari Cichlid Gold and then sometimes Hikari sinking carnivore pellets or Hikari sinking wafers. I can’t remember the frozen food brand unfortunately! I will look into buying the Life Spectrum food!!

Attached photos of the back and some pics from just now! (Well, I tried to at least - doesn’t seem to be working)

sorry again for coming off rude ☹

It's no problem, I didn't take it as rude, maybe just a bit more defensive than I expected, not a big deal, thank you. I can come across as critical in my posts, and wasn't implying a lack of care My intent was to let you know it could be the beginnings of an illness, a bacterial infection, that often gets overlooked as non concerning, until it becomes a much bigger problem, and just to keep an eye on it and see what it does, if it gets worse, treat for it early before permanent scarring.

Cichlids have those nostrils, one on each side (other fish have two on each side) but there are also "sensory pits" technically called "neuromast canals" on the forehead between the eyes and up towards the back that wrap around the head around the gill plates, and down the lateral line area, which are for balance and equilibrium, water movement sensing and pressure changes, ect.

Anyways, the nostrils are also sensory organs, it's for smell of course, mostly to detect chemicals in the water, hormones, pheromones, predator fish and threat scents.

While not connected internally in the fish, these sensory organs are in close proximity to each other and one infection can spread to the other so while the nostril may or may not be infected by bacteria and the fish may overcome it naturally with it's own immune system, it should be monitored on the off chance the neuromast canal gets bacteria in it also and becomes HITH or Lateral Line disease.

it could be injury or irritation though, and not bacterial caused at all, but it's just best to keep an eye on it. They shouldn't be so pink as it is.

All the best to you!