Red Tiger Oscar - Nemo 7cm

Red Tiger Oscar - Nemo

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-crazy variations have been developed and one increasingly popular strain is the Red Tiger Nemo Oscar.

The Red Tiger Nemo oscar is developed through line breeding the classic albino tiger oscar to achieve the insanely crazy patterning and fiery contrast in colours. Whilst normal albino Oscars have an orangey-red tone, these red tiger demo Oscars are as red as they get. This only develops as the oscars get bigger which really does make them a stunning display fish. The white body also carries a slightly red hue through it but they still have enough contrast to stand out phenomenally in any aquarium setting. 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 behaviours.

Red tiger nemo 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 off 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 throughout South America.

Tank Recommendations for your Red Tiger Oscar - Nemo
The red tiger nemo 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
Red Tiger Nemo Oscar are big, boisterous fish that can be very territorial. Though an Oscar's behaviour can range from slightly aggressive to highly aggressive caution should be taken when they are kept with other fish because the 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 Oscar.

Feeding your Red Tiger Oscar - Nemo
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