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I know on the wild-form of oscars that are bred in captivity,they only seem to have one ocellus, norm located at the base of the tail.My question is do Red Oscars have any form of pattern?
Nigel.

Hi Nigel,

I havn't kept red oscars, but from what I know they don't have any "pattern" just that rusty red color.....

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I always thought that red oscars had no ocelli but I got a new book recently that showed a red with a black ocellus on it's caudel peduncle. Right after I got the book I went to a pet store and saw a red oscar with three ocelli on it's caudel peduncle.

Hi Hip,

Truth is I'm not really sure at all if the wild type red oscar has or doesn't have much of a spot on the caudal peduncle, but then they 'are' called Astronatus 'ocellatus'....

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Actually I beleive reds or ruby reds have no "wild-type". They were developed through a lot of selective breeding. I guess some do have a black ocellus on the caudel peduncle or sometimes the caudel fin itself.As far a pattern I wouldn't call it a true pattern but some reds have a black edge to many of the individual body scales.Well that statement isn't really accurate as fish scales are transparent and the pigment cells are located beneath them in the dermis but it appears that the scales have a black edge on some reds.The pictures of "wild-type" oscars that I have seen(as in ones from South America not the ferals from Florida) most closely resemble the "red tiger" variety of oscars in coloration but the finnage varies between what we are used to seeing on reds( short wide pelvic fins and shorter fins in general as opposed to the longer fins seen on most tigers of both varieties, well three varieties of tigers if you count the lutinos which are nothing but black tigers without most of the black).There also seems to be a difference in caudel fin size between the tiger and red varieties.

Hi Hip,

As far as I knew, the Red Oscar is the most similar to the naturally occurring Oscar. Those with a mostly greenish brown(could be reddish-brown) color, and a large red streak on its underbelly. There are of course variations due to selective breeding, long fins which I think is most easily attributed to "selective" breeding and not natural variation. I do find the variations interesting, but what really interests me is if there is any intelligence difference between the varieties. I've only had one albino but it really seemed smarter than my tigers. Unfortunately testing intelligence is hard enough with humans O yea, been slow on the replies last couple days, been sick again, later

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com