(Nicole) wrote in message m...
I purchased an Oscar from a "mixed Oscar" tank at a LFS last week.
When purchased, it was about 1 1/2 inches long, silvery white with
light orange irregular vertical stripes. Two days after being in the
pond with the other fish, it turned black with silver veining, like a
rock. Do some kinds of Oscars change color depending on their
surroundings?

Thanks,
Nicole


Happy Camper and Bassett are both right -- That's one of the cool
things about Oscars is their ability to change colors with mood and
stress. It's a trait common to very, very many species but especially
evident with Oscars. If something happens in your aquarium that
changes the water quality or temperature (like the heater breaking
down, or something like that) Oscars tell you about it right away by
changing color and/or lying down on their side on the gravel. The
reason why it's "cool" is that they give you this radical, obvious
response long before the aquarium condition(s) are bad enough to
actually do them harm. The word of caution here is that if they are
allowed to be under this stress for a long period of time, it can kill
them; so we need to make sure whatever is causing the stress is
rectified. Sounds like you may have saved this little guy's life by
rescuing him from the LFS!

--Mark


Mark Stone tractorlegs at msn dot kom
OSCAR Lovers! http://www.geocities.com/cichlidiot_2000/oscar.html
The ".Edu" meens i are smart.