Color changing Oscar

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

Stress will do it.


"Nicole" wrote in message
...
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

"Nicole" wrote in message
...
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?


Hello Nicole
The Oscar was shy and stressed when you bought him, hence the loss of
colour. Now that he's in his new home he feels confident and happy, pat
yourself on the back cause your Oscar is a happy Camper...
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

(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.

(Mark Stone) wrote in message . com...

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.

Thanks, everyone. I just thought that since it was such a radical
color and pattern change that maybe something was really off. I was
wondering if Osacars
had camouflage abilities since the background he's against now is
black/dark river rock and the one in the LFS was white/light blue.

The little dude seems very happy, he's mingling well with the other
fish and even coming to the top of the pond to eat with the rest, even
though he's about 1/4 or less of their sizes right now.

Makes me wish I had room to rescue some more of his tankmates. They
were all the same color... Hopefully it doesn't mean he was unstressed
in the store and is now really, really stressed in the pond! :-)

Nicole

Another fish to do this especially if water conditions are not to there
liking are Discus


"Nicole" wrote in message
om...
(Mark Stone) wrote in message
. com...

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.

Thanks, everyone. I just thought that since it was such a radical
color and pattern change that maybe something was really off. I was
wondering if Osacars
had camouflage abilities since the background he's against now is
black/dark river rock and the one in the LFS was white/light blue.

The little dude seems very happy, he's mingling well with the other
fish and even coming to the top of the pond to eat with the rest, even
though he's about 1/4 or less of their sizes right now.

Makes me wish I had room to rescue some more of his tankmates. They
were all the same color... Hopefully it doesn't mean he was unstressed
in the store and is now really, really stressed in the pond! :-)

Nicole