Red Tiger Oscar - Batik 5cm

Red Tiger Oscar - Batik

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 cichlid's many colour-crazy variations have been developed and whilst the focus was generally on albino strains, recently there has been a trend of highly pattered classic tiger strains.

One of these is the batik red tiger, Oscar. Batik is an Indonesian word of origin that comes from the art form of hand-dying fabrics that often have incredibly defined patterns. The same sort of principle can be applied to these Oscars, whilst they are not dyed in any way, they are bred to have genetically superior levels of patterning compared to standard tiger Oscars. This often looks like it was hand-painted as the fiery red lines crisscross all over the Oscar, as these fish mature not only do they sport a much more vibrant red, but they also carry some fantastic tiger patterns. The base body colour of blacks, greys, and greens however all tends to be like the classic tiger Oscar.

These Oscars are definitely a fish for the collectors who are after a showpiece fish. The most popular thing about the Oscar cichlid as a whole is their puppy dog-like personality which is often why they get the nickname ‘wet pet’. Batik red 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 behaviour.

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 of naturally. However, because they are a 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 Red Tiger Oscar - Batik
The batik red tiger Oscar is a big fish growing to around 30 cm long and is also considered to be very messy. Because of this it is best to keep them in a tank that is a minimum of only needs a tank around 380 litres.

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. This size tank will not only allow for a full-grown adult Oscar but also 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 sharp 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
Batik red tiger oscar are big, boisterous fish that can be very territorial. Though Oscar's behaviour 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 nanofish such as tetras or shrimp will become immediate food for the Oscar.

Feeding your Red Tiger Oscar - Batik
Batik red tiger oscar cichlids in general are by far one of the easiest fish to feed. They will eat any aquarium food given to them 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 behaviour 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.