Red Oscar
Red Oscar
Currently unavailable
We do not take backorders on live fish, invertebrates or plants. Livestock arrives on the shipping schedule our suppliers and the weather allow, so we will not promise a date we cannot keep.
What is in the tanks changes from week to week. Ask us and we will tell you what is in and what is coming, or check back shortly. Visit us or get in touch.
Free local pickup at our Lethbridge store. Livestock guarantee
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The red oscar is a selectively bred form of Astronotus ocellatus from the Amazon basin, carrying extensive red-orange marbling over a dark base. Oscars are among the most genuinely interactive fish in the hobby — they learn to recognise the person who feeds them, watch the room, and will take food from a hand. They are also large, messy and opinionated, and that is the part worth planning for.
Aquarium care
- Grows quickly and reaches 30 cm or more.
- Needs a genuinely large aquarium, measured in hundreds of litres for a single adult.
- Produces a great deal of waste; oversized filtration and large regular water changes are not optional.
- Rearranges the tank — it moves gravel, uproots plants and shifts decor.
- Will eat any fish it can swallow.
- Feed a varied quality diet of pellets and frozen foods. Feeder fish are a poor diet and carry disease.
Oscars suit a large tank alone, as a pair, or with other big robust cichlids and catfish. Hole-in-the-head lesions are commonly associated with poor water quality and a monotonous diet, so consistent maintenance and varied feeding are the best prevention.
Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is available for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. See the South American cichlid collection.
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