Oscar fish and backgrounds

[Boomkay]

Hello,

I’ve got two Oscar fish and a couple of silver dollars in a 100h tank and I had black paper on the outside as a background, but I took it off last night as I have the tank in front of a dark turquoise wall and think it’s looks better, but my Oscar’s are freaking out a little and I’m wondering if they will be ok and get used to it or should I be putting the black paper back?

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello,

I’ve got two Oscar fish and a couple of silver dollars in a 100h tank and I had black paper on the outside as a background, but I took it off last night as I have the tank in front of a dark turquoise wall and think it’s looks better, but my Oscar’s are freaking out a little and I’m wondering if they will be ok and get used to it or should I be putting the black paper back?

Oscars are very intelligent fish so they will react to changes more than some other fish. I would suggest giving it just a couple of days and if they do not respond back to "Normal", you'd be wise to put back some kind of block to the back of the tank. That said, is the tank up against a wall of something where the scenery doesn't change? If not, it may be the intermittent movements they see that are upsetting them?
Just a suggestion, if you do need to put paper back up, a nice darker blue paper will show off the fish better than black will.

 

[Boomkay]

Yes it’s right up against the wall. They seem to be doing ok, but I’ve only just learnt that they cannot see the best in the dark, and that’s when I took the backing off thinking I wouldn’t scare them, but it did the opposite. Once the timer for the lighting came on, they seem to have gotten around ok without being so skiddish. But yeah I’ll give it a couple of days. I’ve also got the artificial long ivy leaves I can hang on on the back on the outside, cos I really don’t like seeing the outlet hose going to then canister filter. The ivy plants will be exactly the same colour as the wall pretty much so I think they may be ok after a few days and I’ll add some plants a couple at a time and not cover the full back as yet. I’ve learnt a lot about Oscar’s and with their colouring due to them stressed or happy and their colours are normal. I’m guessing it shouldn’t take them too long as they have been in this tank since the were babies and they’re 17months old now. I’ve been fish keeping for years, but I generally had Angels, but Oscars are by far my favs and I just love them like they were my own kids. ��