Hi all,

I'm glad I found this site. I've been enjoying all the great information.

My husband has four oscars. Two of them - Bill & Ted - share a 110g with a 4-5" pleco (probably sailfin) and a 3-4" bumble bee catfish. Bill is about 6", excluding the tail; Ted is about 4" excluding the tail. The LFS special ordered them this summer for my husband as long-finned/veil-tail oscars. And, yes, the LFS got a fancy price for them, too. The more we watch them grow, the more we wonder if they're simply regular-finned oscars. If someone can tell us anything from these awful pictures, we'd really appreciate it.Thanks!

Here's Bill:


Here's Bill again:


Here's Ted:


Here's Ted again:

Welcome to the website, glad to have you here.

I've not seen many longtailed Oscars, there aren't many around. However, that doesn't look like the ones I have seen. Unless the Fins develop as it gets older, there is hardly any difference to a normal Oscar Funnily enough, one of the aquatic centre is near me had a large longfin tiger o in the other day. It wasn't quite veil tail, but it had beautiful fins

I think OFL is right although the fins appear slightly longer they dont look like long finned oscars.

Thanks very much to both of you. Too bad.

My husband has a 120g tank still sitting empty. Does anyone know of a source for true long fins in the U.S? I see them on wholesalers' lists but wouldn't want the same thing to happen again.

Also, is there a place where could I learn about oscar genetics? Things like color dominance and expected ratios of various traits when pairing oscars of different phenotypes/genotypes.

Thanks once again.

I dont think that youll find any genetic work on Oscars on the web what i do know is the red is dominant when spawning no matter which different oscars you spawn. Having spawned reds tigers albinos i know that you will always get a bigger percentage of red tigers ive never had two reds spawn together so im not sure what theyd produce

Those oscars do seem to have longer fins than normal but i wouldnt say they were veil tailed. I have seem a veil tailed oscars only once. They were babies in a shop but their tails were much longer than yours. Also that blackness in the fins, you might find that you end in with some darkness in the body of the fish. I bought an albino that developed that darkness after a while, the best way i have of describing it is to say they look dirty

You have them now and before you know it you will love them as they are!!!

Thanks dinger! Learning that red is dominant is a start. I'm spoiled with my angelfish, since someone did a lot of genetic work in the 70s & 80s, and many people have replicated her work since then.

We've wondered about that dark edge they're getting around their fins delboybully. Thanks for the heads up on what to expect. You're right about loving them as they are, too. My husband has only had them since early summer, but he's quite attached to them. He doesn't even seem to mind the maintenance, though Saturday he overflowed their tank -- all over the hardwood floor .

The black around the edges of the fin is quite normal and sometimes disappears as the fish grows. I grew on a whole bunch of albinos once in a friends indoor pond and the black used to make them look really dirty like they'd been rolling around in soot but as they got bigger the black just went

Thanks again dinger. It'll be interesting to watch them mature.

Hi all,

I thought I'd post some updated pics to show how Bill & Ted are growing up. I still don't know if they're true long fins, but they sure look different from the other two oscars. Opinions anyone?

Here's Bill again. Bill likes to give me a bath when I'm feeding.


Here's Ted again. Ted's still a little smaller than Bill. The pic shows the beginning stages of the change to the tail. Bill's tail looked like this about a month ago, maybe two.


Here they are in their bare-bones 120g. The 110g they were in exploded one night. What a mop-up job that was until 2 in the morning .

Found this pic of a true vail tail!

I would say that yours is partly veil tail. There are very long finned like this, but then yours. The finns are longer than the common oscars.