This weekend K and I went into a pet shop that we rarely go to. While there we noticed a really cool looking fish, it was labeled as a Blueberry Oscar. They were very cool looking, and on impulse we bought for her classroom aquarium, despite the fact we had never heard of this type of oscar before. Though I knew better than to buy a fish without research that type of fish before hand we bought it anyway. When I got home I googled "blueberry oscar" and found out the disturbing truth.First of all there is no such thing as a blueberry oscar, it is simply an albino oscar that has been dyed blue. Even worse thhe dye process is very bad for the health of the fish and only last for a few months. Most fish that get dyed live short and stunted lives. I feel really bad for supporting such cruel activity out of ignorance. Hopefully K's oscar will beat the odds and live long life as a once again white oscar.
Postscript: Sadly a few days after writing this post, K's Blueberry oscar died. Hopefuly other will not make my mistake ans support such a cruel actvity
12 comments:
I am sorry to hear about your fish. I to was taken in by this "Blueberry Oscar" and did not find out about it until probally about a year later. I was even told by the pet store that this fish derived from middle eastern area and where very rare and expencive. The fish only lasted about 15 hours after getting him home. Lucky for me he was covered under there fish warrenty
living in belleville NJ..
I saw a lot in the pet shop in bad condition.. I picked the best out of the lot... to no avail.I will spread the word.. Blueberrry is a hoax... don't support it
I live in Lawrencebug,Tn. I also recently bought 2 blueberry ocsars from a local pet shop. I thought they were really cool and had never heard of them before. About 2 weeks after taking them home I noticed that ALL my fish started getting sick! I have had fish tanks for about 5 years and I have never had a problem! I have also had oscars before and never had a problem! So when my fish started getting sick I began doing research on blueberry oscars. Thats when I found out that they were being injected and dipped to give them there color. I also found out that when this dying process takes place it gives the oscars kidney diseases and other other diseases like finrot. At that point I knew why my fish started dying. I now have to strip my tank and start from scratch. This is a very inhumane thing and we need to help put the word out what people are doing to these fish just to make a dollar! I will be contacting the pet shop to tell them about these oscars!!
Yeah i got a cichlid tank now and i was looking into getting a blueberry oscar i had seen them at the pet store and dude told me that they were rare and hard to breed but hearing about this i have changed my mind i didnt even know it was posable to dye a fish thats fucked up
Last year i was at my lfs and i was complaining about the died fish in the store with hearts painted on them. I proceded to tell them that i would never buy one and five minutes later the guy sold me a blueberry oscar. so anyways he is a couple months short of a year and about 8 1/2 inches and other than having a deformed mouth (im guessing he was force fed dyed food) he is doing really good. hes growing good and doesnt seem to get sick any more than my other oscars. i would never buy another one but i love the one i have. i think its just the extremely good care we take of our fish.
update on blue...i posted in april. he is doing awesome and im pretty sure he is a male. i have two oscars that have been digging a hole and are getting very territorial and blue is one of them. his sex tube has been sticking out for a couuple weeks and it looks like blues a boy. my other one im pretty sure is a girl, i had been clueless until today its swelling up and it deffinatly looks more female to me...i knew it! she looks like a girl. well hopefully we will see if blue is infertal from the dying. ive done a lot of research and cant find anything on them reproducing. ill let you know, it could still take months for her to lay.
i actually just bought a blueberry earlier today not knowing the truth. i was looking up pictures to show my family and read peoples blogs and stuff about them.
I bought one a few years back. I was pretty sure it was unnatural because it was next to a tank of tattooed fish (hearts for valentines day). The oscar also had an apparent mark from being injected. I bought it anyways just to see if he'd survive. Stupid Humans
hi fellow oscar aquarists.. I have never been so disappointed in my life.. I honestly thought that the blueberry oscar was a cross breed between an oscar and perhaps a.. Diamond Blue discuss, or electric blue jack dempsey or.. something.. I've been twisting my wife's arm for two weeks now to let me buy a blueberry.. Yesterday she finally said yes and i bought it and put it in quarantine.. I knew that glass fish could be dyed.. But not an "albino oscar".. I feel very upset now and cannot fathom how i could support such an inhumane act.. I love animals and vow never to make such an uninformed acquisition again.. Furthermore i hope for "my" own sake and sanity that the fish doesn't suffer or die prematurely whilst in my care..
hi all.. Just updating you on my blueberry.. It's still alive.. And swimming.. It has started to "argue" with my other albino oscar.. But no harm cos they're both only +/- two inches long.. bad news though is that my "other" oscar (a normal tiger oscar who was in quarantine) has died.. He just stopped eating one day and refused to swim either.. Eating only enough to keep alive.. But, the blue oscar is showing signs of high vitality and is really a big eater.. Competing for food is not optional to him.. Its a must.. I hope he keeps this up cos we enjoy watching him do his thing.. I also discovered that they outgrow this blue dye stage and appear quite normal after a few months.. Mine has started to fade and is slowly starting to look normal again.. (which i am quite happy about).. I'll be acquiring a 1.2 metre tank soon and plan on getting 2 more (normal) tiger oscars to add to my aquarium.. I'll keep posting about "Blueberry" as my wife calls him.. (the other oscar is named "Bengal" due to him being a "white" tiger oscar..) I hope you all keep me posted too if you own these fish..
hi everybody.. Me again.. Just wondering.. My blueberry recently started a new habit of spitting the food out only a few seconds after gobbling it up.. I've not seen such actions from any oscar before.. Is it normal for oscars to do this? Anyone out there have a clue..
i'm very sad.. blueberry died last week.. He was hovering on one side under the filter.. And then he would lie down as if asleep.. But the habit of spitting food out became worse and eventually didn't eat anything anymore.. I'm really cheesed off now.. He didn't die of natural causes or illness though (because i can't stand to see them suffering).. When my paradise fish took ill i decided to euthenise any fish who didn't show signs of recovery after being medicated for a few days (as sickness tends to spread if an ill fish's condition deteriorates and is left in the aquarium).. So sadly, i had to put my Blue away.. This experience was not a good one for me.. So never again will i buy a fish again without knowing the origin and history of said fish..
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