Species ???

[boyle1770]

Hi, I am new to this forum and was wondering if someone out there could tell me what kind of Oscar this is?
We just purchased him yesterday, he is only 1 1/2 to 2 inches long. He has lost some of his color, he was much darker at the store. He is dark green, almost black, with silvery white marble lines. He is beautiful!
The store told us he is a red Oscar--I know he is not, we had a very large red Oscar many years back and he is not even close in color.
Sorry for the quality of the photos, we are in the middle of setting up his aquarium.
Any info. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks......

[jm1212]

there is only one species of oscar.

[liv2padl]

there are a few different 'color' morphs of oscar but they are all Astronotus occelatus. at the size of your oscar, it's impossible to determine whether yours is red or ?

[ChilDawg]

Actually, that has now been proven to be incorrect as A. crassipinnis is also called an Oscar. It is possible that the two have been mixed in the aquarium hobby, so our common LFS Oscar could well be a hybrid of the two.

[fishcatch22]

it may be a young wild oscar, but that's just a vague guess. you'll have to wait and see what he becomes.

[liv2padl]

Astronouts crassipinnis is 'barred' rather than 'occelated' and i'd suggest it's easily distinguishible from the "oscar"

http://www.cjexotics.com/images/crass85.jpg

i've never seen crassipinnis called "oscar" nor should it be. got any references? i'd like to read more about this.

[ChilDawg]

I confused something in my statement:

1.) I had confused A. crassipinnis with A. orbicularis (which is suggested as a species in several sources). I remembered A. crassipinnis as an infamous "Oscar" because it was the reason that the genus Acara is defunct.

2.) If A. orbicularis is determined to be a full species (jury is still out...), then it is more than likely that the fish we have in the hobby as an "Oscar" is now a hybrid of the two species.

That's where I confused the issue.


Regardless of that, many refer to A. crassipinnis as a sort of Oscar and what's wrong with that? Common names aren't some scientific bit of standardized nomenclature...nobody ever said whether "Oscar" was to be applied to just the one species or to the entire genus when it was first applied (actually, as far as was known at the time, it could well have been applied to both!)...in general, though, I agree with you--too much confusion occurs when a common name once applied to a once monotypic genus is expanded to encompass the species which are later added to the genus.
At the very least, the name "Zebra Oscar" (which is sometimes applied to A. crassipinnis online) could be used to refer to it--that would show the close relationship between the two species without using the same common name.

[liv2padl]

boy, it's hard enough keeping up with the latin nomenclature, let alone the common names. you're obviously more up on this issue than i am. thanks for the info.

[wataugachicken]

i can't tell you what type it is, but you definitely got a beautiful fish. congrats!

[Sonic Tooth]

I have seen a fish just like that labeled as a tiger Oscar, if that helps... The tiger oscars I saw changed colors quite quickly, so maybe that can explain the color...

[albyoscar]

looks like a zebra oscar to me but ya never know