Albino Tiger Oscar 7cm

Albino Tiger Oscar
 

Quite easily the world's most popular predatory South American cichlid is the red tiger Oscar. These fish have bold personalities, a unique body shape, and a wild but eye-catching colour palette of blacks, greys, and fiery reds. Through the years of captive breeding Oscar cichlids, many colour variations have been developed however the albino tiger variant still reigns supreme in popularity and availability. 

The albino tiger Oscar offers aquarists a totally polar-looking fish that has a white body colour instead of the normal black seen in regular Oscars. They still maintain the vibrant reds and the tiger-like patterning whilst still maintaining the loveable behaviors of Oscars. The most popular thing about the Oscar is their puppy dog-like personality which is often why they get the nickname ‘wet pet’ because they can become extremely personable to their owners displaying a wide range of fun and interesting behaviors. 

Albino tiger Oscars however do get fairly sizeable not just in length but in height as well with an oval-like body. They are also fairly aggressive fish and need to be kept with selective tank mates due to their behavior. However, the albino tiger Oscars are a great fish to keep in a species-only display aquarium to really highlight their unique look. Trying to find the males and females in this species is very difficult in comparison to other South American cichlids. There are no immediate distinguishing factors between male and female Oscars and it is best to let them pair off naturally. However, because they are territorial fish it is difficult to house multiple Oscars in an aquarium without it being very large. naturally, the wild Oscars are found in the amazon river of South America. 

Tank Recommendations for your Albino Tiger Oscar
The albino tiger Oscar is a big fish growing to around 30 cm long and is also considered to be messy fish. Because of this, it is best to keep them in a tank that is a minimum of only needs a tank around 380 liters. Though the internet may show recommendations for smaller tank volumes, in the long run, this can be detrimental to the fish as maintaining proper quality in smaller tanks with a full-grown Oscar can be very difficult. These size tanks will not only allow for a full-grown adult tiger Oscars but the possibility for other tank mates. 

The aquascape for an Oscar should be taken very lightly as these are big and often clumsy fish. They regularly scratch themselves and bump into scaling materials which could cause unnecessary injury so it is best to keep them on a sand or gravel substrate with a few smooth river rocks and some driftwood to mark out territorial boundaries. Oscars however with their amazing personalities may choose to redecorate their home to better suit them.  

Suitable Tank Buddies

Albino Tiger Oscars are big, boisterous fish which can be very territorial. Though Oscar's behavior can range from slightly aggressive to highly aggressive caution should be taken when they are kept with other fish because Oscar's voracious personality and feeding response can mean they outcompete tank mates for food.

Usually Compatible

Large growing South American cichlids such as jaguar cichlids, red devil cichlids, Veija cichlids, and species of a similar sort can be housed with Oscars. 

Sometime Compatible

Geophagus, silver dollars, flag tail prochilodus, and other large growing fish species.

Rarely Compatible

Peaceful aquarium species and nano fish such as tetras or shrimp will become immediate food for the Oscar.

Feeding your Albino Tiger Oscar

Oscar cichlids in general are by far one of the easiest fish to feed. They will eat any aquarium food given to them all the way from pellets to frozen foods. Their diet should contain good quality floating or sinking pellets with high protein content. 

This should be supplemented with frozen foods such as bloodworms. One thing to note is that they are messy eaters so feeding flakes might not be a good option. Feeding should occur once a day and it is best to do so during the day.

Oscars will often beg their owners for food by swimming up to the top of the aquarium in expectation of a meal, this behavior often leads to aquarists overfeeding their Oscars. This not only causes poor water quality but can also lead to long-term negative health effects for the Oscars as well.