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..