Peacock Cichlid "red tiger" - Astronotus ocellatus - single specimen

Peacock Cichlids are also known as Red Oscars and belong to the lovers animals, which have a pronounced character . Originating from the Amazon region in South and Central America, they mainly inhabit calm river sections. The red tiger peacock-eye cichlid is a great color form and differs optically clearly from the rather multicolored nominatform: on its rather gray-black basic color red, partly black edged great red "tiger stripes" draw, which gave it among other things its name. Astronotus ocellatus are super suitable for a so called "Oscar aquarium" just because of their final size with almost 40 cm.

Greenish to gray is the body color of the Red Tiger Oscars, the pretty red pattern is on top. Especially the dorsal fin, but also the very conspicuous spot on the caudal fin peduncle can show so called eyespots, which among other things gave the name to the Peacock Cichlid. The oval bodies are flat on the sides, their fins form a line. Especially their mouth is huge, the lower jaw is not only very muscular, but also covered with many little teeth.

Red Tiger Oscars can also be bred in the aquarium. They belong to the substrate spawners, where the female attaches her almost 2000 yellow eggs. About three days later the first "mini-oscars" hatch and still feed on their yolk sac. During this time they mostly hang vertically from plants and furnishings before moving horizontally after just under a week and also developing rapidly. Red Tiger Oscars are exemplary parents that are very protective of their brood. The young can be raised well at the beginning with freshly hatched Artemia nauplii. In their juvenile stage, they have white stripes on a dark base color, but as they age they grow and change color to the typical red tiger stripes.

An Oscar aquarium should have at least 200 cm edge length due to the possible final size of these animals. The substrate can be sand or gravel and should offer a good infrastructure, such as with Roots and stone structures secured against falling over,  which still leaves enough space for swimming. The planting plays rather a subordinate role and can consist of perching plants like for example Anubia, Java fern or Bucephalandra exist. Oscars can be kept at a total hardness (GH) between 5 and a maximum of 15 °dGH and at a temperature of 22-28 °C.

In the strikingly huge mouth of the Red Tiger Oscars fits a lot - and they eat it. Therefore the socialization is rather suitable only with similarly large perches from the same habitat, but also large catfish.

The omnivorous Red Tiger Oscars are not very squeamish and can be accustomed to almost every commercial dry food, granulated food or flake food for carnivorous ornamental fish. From time to time they can also be fed larger thawed frozen foods such as fish fillets, but also smelts, mussels, Snails but also Daphnia or Artemia can be offered.

Our food recommendation: The NatureHolic Cichfeed has a grain size of 1.5 mm and is therefore also suitable for larger fish. The NH Cichfeed is a soft granulate for predominantly carnivorous fish. It has the same consistency as small crustaceans and insect larvae that fish naturally eat, and the soft granules protect the fish mouth from micro-injuries that can be caused by hard feed granules.

Our plant recommendation: For planting, use NatureHolic InVitros. These are free of snails, planarians and other unwanted co-inhabitants. Also free of algae spores, bacteria and fungi.

Expert Tip: We recommend when keeping fish the NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your animals. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.