Legend of OSCAR

You may ask where all of the different types of Oscar came from. Well, as we know, there are many types of Oscar available. Tiger Oscar, Red Oscar, Albino Oscar, Red Tiger Oscar, Lemon Oscar, the list goes on. None of these Oscars will be found in the wild, they have all been bred from one original species of Oscar. This species is the Wild Oscar, sometimes referred to as the Common Oscar. Most of us have heard of the Tiger Oscar, in fact, according to the poll on this website, the Tiger Oscar is the most popular choice. The Tiger Oscar was the first commercially available strain that was developed from the original Wild Oscar. While it retains all the colours of the wild Oscar, it does contain other colours such as red or orange which was thought to be a considerable improvement on the original.

In the late 60s, the Red Oscar made an appearance for the first time. It was completely different to what was already available which got people very excited. The fish was originally bred by a businessman in Thailand. He had discovered a few unusual Oscars amongst many others and after much hard work, finally managed to breed the Red Oscar which is much loved by Many an Oscar enthusiast.

The albino Oscar is relatively new, in fact, it was developed around 20 years after the Red Oscar so I suppose it could be classed as "the new kid on the block". actually, in many cases, you be no Oscars more than likely a Lutino Oscar.If you want to be really pedantic, a true albino contains no pigmentation and will have red eyes. However, Oscars that are white and not round I referred to as albino Oscars.

There are many other species of Oscar that you may never heard of. I will briefly cover a couple. At some stage you may come across a purple, or even a raspberry Oscar. They will probably be very striking with vibrant colours which may take your fancy. You may wonder how they manage to breed the colours in to these type of Oscars. Well, they don't, they dye them in many cases. You may be wondering how they do that to a fish, surely all the colours will run off as soon as they put it back into the water. This is where things get quite horrible. What they do is dip the fish in what can be only described as a sort of acid. The protective membrane is then burnt away and then the dye is literally painted on. They are then treated once again so that the membrane grows back. The problem is, the dye often wears off in time which leaves you with a dreary looking fish. In many people's opinion, a horrible disgusting practice that should be phased out.

Finally, I will just mention an Oscar called the vieltail. These Oscars were developed quite a few years ago but don't seem to be as abundant as all their other counterparts. Occasionally you may come across one in the fish shop. If you do decide to purchase one of these, you have to be aware that they should be kept alone so their fins can develop properly. Also, their fins are prone to damage which can expose them to various fin diseases so do think carefully before purchasing one of these.