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My First Predator


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#1 Ryan-w

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Posted 18 August 2016 - 08:52 PM

Well ive been a discus man for a long time but i had a 5x2x2 sitting around so i picked up a little oscar spur of the moment. Hes only a tiny little guy at the moment and was just by him self at city farmers when i was vetting koi food an he sucked me in.

Hes only about the size of a full grown barb at the moment and he is actually in the tank with 10 barbs and he seems to think he is one at the moment he schools with them and eats what ever they show intrest in haha once they get a bit closer to mouth size they will move into the pond with the koi.

Id realy love to find a juvi red oscar to move in with him hes a wild looking type, theres always plenty of tigers around but id like one a little different but it might be a hard task to find one for him to grow up with so he may end up with a tiger as a growing partner

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Edited by Ryan-w, 18 August 2016 - 08:49 PM.


#2 malawiman85

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 07:55 AM

Its cute!
I prefer the wild type too. Oscars are prretty cool pets. I do get a bit annoyed with how friendly and interactive they get.

#3 Jules

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 08:22 AM

Oscars are gorgeous and great fish, my first fish where a pair of Oscars, had them for 7 years!

Wild variants are by far the best looking of them all, should grow up a few and sell me one when they are large! (haha been looking for one for ages)

 

Only down side with Oscars is a lot people buy them and under care for them, scroll through gumtree, see all the poor Oscars in 3x14 tanks with HITH, poor fishes.



#4 Peckoltia

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 10:29 AM

Just looks like a young tiger oscar too me. 

 

"wild type" seems to be the in thing at the moment. Most are just low grade tigers, haven't seen any true wilds around for a long while. 



#5 Ryan-w

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 10:38 AM

Thats why i refer to him as a wild looking. A tiger should have the red this guy is just black grey blue colors more of a wild from what i can see

Edited by Ryan-w, 19 August 2016 - 10:39 AM.


#6 Peckoltia

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 11:15 AM

Ryan

 

It is only a very small fish. Most oscars at that size are generally 'colourless', depending on what foods they are fed. Obviously fish fed 'colour foods' will develop red colouration much sooner. As you bought this fish from city farmers, I acn probably assume this fish has not been fed colour enhancing foods (well at least not recently). Looking at the picture you can see the orange/yellow coming through on the stomach already. Having bought it from a chain store - it would be a tiger oscar. 

'Wild Type' is just a bit of a misclassification of oscars based on appearance for captive bred mass produced fish. I don't think the term 'wild type' should be used unless they are progeny of wild caught fish. Then they would typically be F1, F2 etc. 

 

The fish you have purchased is just a regular run of the mill Tiger Oscar, Which is fine, they are still nice fish. But this calling every oscar that has less red than is usual for a Tiger Oscar a 'wild type' is not correct, and I have seen others recently selling them as such.

 

I purchased 8 genuine Wild Caught Oscars about 4 years ago. Surprisingly they didn't look anything like your fish. Almost jet black in colour and bright red patterning (some were almost devoid of any pattern). The head shape was also much pointier than standard multigeneration captive bred oscars. Their temprament was also very different, much more aggressive than standard oscars, more comparible to a dovii. Even at a young size and in a group of 8 mine would beat the crap out of each other. I gave some of these too a good mate (I think 3 or 4?), and he still has one, and it is the perfect specimen of what a wild oscar should look like (IMO). Their is always a bit of debate with wild caught fish, are they really wild caught? But after having kept this group of wild oscars, I have no doubt they were indeed the real deal. This was more based on attitude and behaviour than appearance (although the appearance is bang on). 

 

E84FBA62-E1DF-4B68-BC19-450E7C2A9B00_zps

 

Notice the pointier than normal head on this fish and the typical 'wild oscar' colouration. 

 

Alex



#7 Ryan-w

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 11:37 AM

Cool, im hope mine sticks more to the greys and blacks that he is as i like the more natural look over tigers. Hes only small so it will be intresting as he grows how hes going to colour up. In the week ive had him hes already looking different to when he first came home. That close up shot was just after i got him,this is the best i can get now as hes full of energy

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What did you feed yours when they are young? Mine at the moment is eating freeze dried black worms what i feed my discus and hes also gecided to get stuck into the fish flaked that the barbs eat

#8 malawiman85

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 11:42 AM

The term wild type is different from wild caught and just means it doesnt have any of the red colouration. I have never seen anyone selling wild type trying to dupe anyone into believing they are wild caught.
Im pretty sure your oscar wont colour up, dont worry.

#9 Ryan-w

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 12:44 PM

Eather way im not fussy i bought him because i liked him haha. It looks like its going to be very hard to find juvi red oscars tho

#10 Peckoltia

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 01:05 PM

The term wild type is different from wild caught and just means it doesnt have any of the red colouration. I have never seen anyone selling wild type trying to dupe anyone into believing they are wild caught.
Im pretty sure your oscar wont colour up, dont worry.

 

I am well aware that 'wild type' and 'wild caught' are two different things, been in the game long enough. My point is, that 'wild type' is a bit of a bullsh*t term. As 99% of the time (this is just one case of it), it is just a run of the mill Tiger Oscar with reduced red colouration. It is particularly misleading when dealing with young fish. As we are all aware that young cichlids change colour significantly with age/size.

 

It leads me to the next question, why is 'wild type' a term used for a an oscar with reduced red? The picture of the adult WILD CAUGHT oscar has significant red on it (especially near the ocelli and back third of the fish)? As stated even the young wild caught oscars I had, had red on them. Can't we just call a spade a spade and say that this is just a Tiger Oscar? a 'low grade' tiger oscar (if we are going to classify Tigers with increased red 'high grade')? or even a 'reduced red' tiger oscar?

 

A mate of mine sent me some pics recently of some 'wild type' oscars he was offered, I don't know the price of these fish, but at the end of the day, yes they had minimal red in them but were still just Tiger Oscars. 

 

Ryan - at the end of the day you are happy with the fish you purchased and that is all that matters. My opinion is it is a fairly typical tiger oscar, nothing wild about it. Chances are the red will come through with a bit of age. I only feed two types of pellets these days - Otohime Hirame and Fishwerx 'gold' pellets. These are cheap as chips and just as good as many of the more common super expensive foods we see on shelves. 


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#11 malawiman85

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 01:43 PM

Clarification wasnt for your benefit...
Yeah its a BS marketing term for a grey tiger... but who cares?
Its not really misleading or used as justification to inflate prices so its not worth worrying about.

#12 Westie

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 02:57 PM

I purchased a little Oscar from a shop some time back. Looked exactly like the one Ryan has got. As it put on some size, it got the red tiger colour on it



#13 Spiesie

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 03:20 PM

Eather way im not fussy i bought him because i liked him haha.

 

That is the important part -> You bought it because you liked it!



#14 Peckoltia

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 04:42 PM

Clarification wasnt for your benefit...
Yeah its a BS marketing term for a grey tiger... but who cares?
Its not really misleading or used as justification to inflate prices so its not worth worrying about.

 

 

This is how all BS marketing starts, a couple people calling tigers 'wild types' then next week you go into a store (not that any of the site sponsors would do it) and you see tiger oscars labelled as 'wild type' oscars for $50 a pop. 

 

I am all for calling a spade a spade. My point in posting initially was to point out the pitfalls in labelling such a fish as 'wild type'. I am struggling to see your input into the topic? other than you perhaps don't mind sloppy labelling of fish in the hobby? Been around way too long and seen far too many dubious 'trade names' on fish, and this is generally how it starts. 



#15 malawiman85

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 05:08 PM

Whatever champ, rant on.

#16 Peckoltia

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 05:36 PM

I won't apologise for caring, or for being passionate about passing on information.

 

Thanks for your insight though, it has been about as helpful as air-conditioning on a motorbike. 



#17 Buccal

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 07:11 PM

Sounds like a premier pets (bayfish) classical big note sales tag,,,, "Scrupulous" could possibly be a fitting term.
And the chain shops would call it as they see it on the lists, but they don't know any better.
But this has always been the worry of good shops lost and chain stores standing.

Isn't really the best using sales slang,,, but I guess one would have to look where that actual term derived from...

#18 Ryan-w

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 07:53 PM

So anyway. Lets skip all that and go back to not getting upset.


The guys at morley aquariums are getting me a little red for me next week so great news!

#19 Chopstick_mike

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Posted 19 August 2016 - 08:57 PM

Ye Paul is super helpful and you can guarantee it will be quality

#20 Jules

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Posted 21 August 2016 - 04:32 PM

Nice one!! I also bought me an O last night

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