Hi all,
I have 2 oscars. One tiger and one albino... I keep them in a 43 gallon tank.. they are babies... as I am new to oscar keeping im not sure of keeping them either in Mineral water or ground water... so i keep them in mineral water tank. The thing is the tiger oscar, when i bought had more orange color in it and now after 2 weeks the orange color was totally not visible... the tiger oscar is now in pale black color.. and my albino too lost its color.. . I feed them with live food, freezed shrimp and Hi-Red pellets sometimes with goat liver and prawns. How can I improve the color of the fish...?? Pls help...

I have pics of them.. but i donno how to upload it here in this topic... so I have uploaded in my public album in picasa...

picasaweb.google.com/spserd/MyOscars?feat=directlink

This is the pic of my tiger oscar now..

welcome to the site.
how big are your oscars?
first of all, pristine water and varied food
makes your oscar have vibrant colors.

can you post water parameters of your tank:
ammonia?
nitrite?
nitrate?
pH?
temp?
what is your filter pump capacity?

stress could also alter their color. so maybe they
were affected by new tank syndrome. how long have you
have your tank? are they fully cycled before putting
your fishes in there. sorry for a lot of question.
you have to help us help you.

Thanks for the quick response...
The water is clean and the oscars are seems to be happy.. i can hand feed them.. they are brisk always.. I set the temp level to 26C.. I have completely cleaned the tank before putting the fishes...
How can I check the nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and ph levels? sorry I am totally new to fish keeping...
What are the optimum level of these readings..??


-Prabu.

Have you cycled the tank?. cycling is the process of running the tank without fish but ammonia present in the tank for the bacteria to build up in the filter. without doing this before placing fish into the tank you will quickly run into problems. you will also need a full test kit for members to help you fully. you can buy a full water testing kit at any good pet store that sell fish. make sure its a full kit to cover ammonia,nitrites,nitrates, PH. if you have not cycled the tank you will need a test kit urgently or you fish health will be at risk.

baby Oscars never stay the same colour and can change beyond belief

Sounds like you have not cycled your tank, and like marcus said, your going to run into big problems.
i tend to have my temp at 27-28, i remember geting told oscars like it around that.
also, when you say you cleaned it out, with what? and how?