My tiger Oscar, in my 80 gallon tank, has had faded orange colors for a long time now. What could be the cause? I feed him brine shrimp, beefheary, bloodworms, and cichlid bio gold pellets. Whenever I see him, the orange is really faded, even hard to see. At my Lfs all the oscars I see have vivid bright orange colors. Is it possible that I got one with just bad genetics? I also have a dark background with dark substrate, and both ammonia and nitrite are at 0.

All Oscars are colored differently... I would assume that it is down to genetics. The background and substrate being dark should help. Unless he is trying to blend??? I guess as long as he is healthy that is all that matters!

The only thing that comes to mins is th when I changed
My substrate to black sand his colours dulled a fair bit
But I don't know if this the cause was he brighter when
Yu had white or light substrate if Yu had?

Oscars will change their colors some as they mature. Mine was much more 'red' as a youngster and it gradually faded and shrank.

The colour your oscar has will depend on breeding, there isnt much you can do about it. Oscars do change colour as they grow.