Hi my boyfriends mom has 2 big full sized tiger oscars, one is about 10 yrs old the other is about 3 or 4. Shes had oscars for years (shes who got me hooked on them). A few days ago she noticed that they were looking lighter in color. Today the black part is almost white. She's never had this happen before, nothing has changed in diet or routine. They only thing is that their lights have been off because of a faulty bulb. Could the lack of light do this? Has ayone ever had thier fish loose this much pigment at a time?

Any help or ideas or anything would be welcome, shes freaking out she loves her baby's just like they were her own kids (because they are)..

Thank you..

I'll try and take a picture tomorrow and post it if it will help..

Ive never heard of this in adult Oscars as she probably knows from growing them on the juveniles change colour as they grow but its not normal for adults to change colour. I doubt the lighting will have any effect on them pics would be helpful

Yes, pic would be good.
Oscars can change colours to a certain degree with the mood or surroundings (i.e. light, temp, substrate) so they would look pale at times, but probably in 10 years your boyfriend's mom would have seen that before, as dinger said already. My poor Oscar had to sit in the bathtub with no light and a low temp recently when we moved, and he went really pale. I mainly blamed the temp and stress level though.

First thing to do is a water test, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. This is a very important procedure to carry out if you suddenly noticed changes in fish. There are certain reasons why fish could change colour, it could be something or nothing but until you know what your water is doing, it really is difficult to advise. Just observe the fish, is it still eating? Is it breathing heavily? These are two signs that things could be not quite right.

ok so here is a bunch of pics.. the one with the longer fins who is about 12-14 inches long is about 10 or 11 yrs old. The other one which is about 8 inches long is about 2 1/2 years old. The tank is about 150 to 175 gallons or so. Please let me know what you guys think. I'm taking a water sample to the fish store tomorrow, they usually come and clean her tank once a month or so.

There looks to be HITH definately on the big one and maybe the younger one.









this is the younger one



here's the old lady..

they are usually very black. they've been like this for a few weeks now.. they look even whiter than this in person.. the camera actually makes them look a lil darker..

They don't look as "white" as I had expected them to be looking, but certainly looking paler than usual must mean something. Are the lights still off in their tank?

We don't know the water parameters yet Penn asked you to post, but seeing the tank is only cleaned once monthly it would be a good idea to increase the frequency to once weekly or so. The tank is nicely big though, so maybe a bit less often would be ok if the readings are fine (ammonia and nitrite definitely 0). Might help with the indents as well, often there will remain "scars" though. A good varied diet with some fresh vitamin enriched food would be beneficial as well if the Oscars don't get that already.

I'm only curious if the Oscars will still be looking pale once the tank lights are working again.

hello OFL,

I came across this old issue and got interest on some aspect,
particularly the 10 to 11 year old oscar. I am not sure if
the one who sent this topic is still active in caring her oscars.
I am just wondering why nobody among the moderators noticed the
unusual small size of a 10 year old oscar as well as the younger
one. Have you noticed that the old oscar had unsually long fins?
The growth was stunt on both, old & young one.

I just got interest on changing colors because my oscars are now
having the same situation. The white color (but not albino) is
now turning brown for the female & grey with black abdomen for
the male. The only difference between their oscar & mine is the
age and size, 10 vs 18 months, 11 inches vs 15 inches.

In this case, it only shows that there is a certain parameters
that can alter and control the growth of oscar.

We really do need to know more about your water conditions, this means a full reading for ammonia,nitrites,nitrates,PH. without this we have little to go on.

I have seen a fish loose colour like this very recent. This was my own fish that become sick and died. Its a very good indication that your water conditions are bad, or your fish are sick. the 2 uslly go together, ie bad water means sick fish.

Hi Marcus,

after testing my water to be normal, my instinct
made me change my mind. I do have change my water
30%, and have my water re-tested only to find out
an alarming result: nitrate=57.92; alkalinity=46.66

I had tried to figure out what causes the sudden
change and find out that I made a mistake in total
cleansing the overhead filtering box.

Today, my water is normal again
amonia =nil
nitrite = nil
nitrate =16
pH = 7.06

two things that is possible in changing the color
1. they were affected by sudden change in water
parameters when I totally cleaned the filtering system

2. they are just showing their normal color. remember,
they are just 19 months old, maturity level. and nobody
could ever tell what is the real color of my specie,
white but not an albino.

I still remember that my previous albino shows their
golden yellow markings on the 14th month old. My only
problem by then was that I never take any reading in my
water