Once more we were able to import four wonderful, large (18-25 cm) specimens of the Oscar cichlid from Brazil. There is no consensus among scientists how many species should be assigned to the genus Astronotus. Most scientists accept only two species, namely A. crassipinnis and A. ocellatus. Others believe that there are many more species and that the genus Astronotus is urgently in need of a scientific revision. We think that the four current imports belong to three different species. So we do not use scientific specific names here.

 

A beautiful pair reached us from the state of Para. The male has a high degree of red all over the lower part of the body, whereas in the female the red colors are restricted basically to the region around the opercle. We are sure that fish like these were among the ancestors of the artificial sport called "Red Tiger Oscar".

 

Two other specimens reached us from the Rio Tapajos. They most likely represent two different species or the sexual dimorphism is extreme in this population of Oscar. One of the specimens is very slender and has a nice yellow basic color. The other specimens reminds us strongly to the "Zebra" we were able to import last year (see), but this time the bright vertical stripes are rather reddish and the animal has a great number of black speckles in the face.

 

For our customers: the fish have code 633427 (Tapajos) and 632528 (Para) on our stock list. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.

 

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer