are oscar color changes voluntary?

Karlsbad

Karlsbad

Sharkbait
Sep 23, 2003
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Chicagoland
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I'm way too close to my Oscar. Since I can't have bigger than a 90g tank he's alone unless you count the striped raphael that never leaves his log. So I feel like I want to make sure hes not lonely, so I put my face up to the glass a lot and he comes and swims sideways next to me and if I walk down the tank with my face sideways to the glass he will follow(when I show him a food container he goes to the one corner I always dump the food in, so he's not doing that to beg for food) I realize this is pretty ***.

Anyway I'm really starting to think he's changing his color based on the shade of the shirts I wear, in fact I'm almost positive, its very noticeable if I wear a white shirt.
 
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Oscars, like a lot of other fish, use colors to communicate. Maybe your shirt is saying something to him and he is responding to it.
 
Fish of many kinds change the pigmentation of their skins to match the color of their background/environment more or less closely.

I kept African Cichlids in a crushed coral bottom for the longest time; it made them all look pale and grey. When I changed the gravel to a mix of different shades of brown, their colors changed and they are now a lot more attractive.
 
Probably very natural, As said almost any fish will change colors based on many enironmental stimuli. Oscars are a very endearing fish, there is a good chance he changes colors because you are in the room. I wouldn't worry about him dieing of lonliness, it's pretty unlikely. I've known too many oscars who stayed single their entire lives. give him something to push around the tank he'll stay busy and happy.
 
I think this is one of the neatest things I've read here! Your fish can TALK! That's amazing. Someone should be collecting data and writing a paper about this so we can work on getting a translation :D
 
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