Hey there!! I LOVE your website...for newbies like me it is extremely user friendly and VERY informative. Anyway, I have probably a LAME question however I don't know so I am going to ask. Okay, I have a tiger oscar about 7 inches long that lost it's ( I still don't know the sex of it yet) mate due to jumping out of the tank a couple of months ago. A few times I have noticed a translucent tube not oval necessarily with what looks like a burgandy thin intestine. Lumpy and bumpy burgandy string within the translucent tubule??? Is this just an elongated egg tube...it definitely isn't a male spike. Is my fish okay???

Jen

Welcome to the website Jen. That certainly sounds a bit strange. A photograph would be very helpful. To be perfectly honest, it's very difficult to say what it is from your description (not saying that you weren't trying hard to describe it ) this may sound silly, but are you sure it just wasn't going to the toilet because that can look rather strange sometimes and rather large as well. Female Oscars will lay eggs without a male present so if it is the female, you could well see its egg tube.

Do you think it was actually part of the Oscar, or something coming out, or don't you really know?

Sorry, not much help at the moment

LOL!! Nope...definitely NOT having bowel movement...I have been a fish owner before and not poop. I'll try to get a pic of it and it should prove to be a challenge due to I just put her in a 125 gallon tank...lol.Whatever it is it is retractable...she was in a bare bottom tank the last time she did it so when it was gone it was nowhere in the tank. Also, her only tank mate at this time is a 5 inch plecto (so no fellow eater possible ..eww) The burgandy string (lack of better term) definitely was one continuous string...no seperate oval round pieces ( eggs??) overlay was a partially translucent/whitish covering approx. 1/2 inch long. She seems happy and healthy so I am not terribly worried just want to make sure she doesn't have some disease before I introduce a potential mate.

Jen

Um, never seen anything like that before. If it looks okay at the moment and there is nothing there that looks abnormal, I don't suppose there is much to worry about. From my experience, the female sexual organ doesn't come out too far. I suppose that different fish could look different underneath. I think you'd have to study a lot of Oscars to know that for sure. Yes, get a photograph, that would be good