Astronotus ocellatus
Oscar
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Cichlidae (Cichlids)
Astronotus
Astronotus ocellatus (Oscar)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
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Characters
Body shape: short and / or deep. Large mouth with thick lips; 7 preopercular pores; first gill arch without lobe; gill rakers short and thick with many denticles; dorsal and anal fins bases densely scaled; many branched rays; body color dark with bright orange opercle margin and ventral parts of the lateral sides of the body; often a black rounded blotch with orange margin at caudal fin base (Ref. 35237). Striking features: none.
Distribution
South America: western Amazon and Orinoco basins. Introduced elsewhere.
Habitat Associations
Freshwater. benthopelagic. Found in: streams, lakes.
Biology
Preferably inhabits quiet shallow waters in mud-bottomed and sand-bottomed canals and ponds (Ref. 5723). Feeds on small fish, crayfish, worms and insect larvae. Quite popular with aquarists but not for aquaculturists because of its slow growth (Ref. 35237). Maximum length 40 cm TL (Ref. 5723). A highly esteemed food fish in South America (Ref. 44091).
Max length: 45.7 cm TL; common length: 24.0 cm TL; max weight: 1580 g.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; guarders (clutch tenders); parental care: biparental. In captivity, both male and female clean a suitable spawning site - often a flat rock , or branches, or in a circular nest excavated in shallow water (Ref. 44091). Eggs (usually numbering in the thousands, Ref. 44091) are deposited and are guarded by both parents. Egg hatch in 3 or 4 days and parent move the fry to a shallow pit in the sand where they remain for 6 or 7 days (Ref. 7020).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2020-11-04. Resilience: High (Assuming tm<=1; Fec=300-2000).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; gamefish; aquarium: highly commercial.
References
Breder, C.M. and D.E. Rosen (1966) Modes of reproduction in fishes. T.F.H. Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey. 941 p.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.
Mills, D. and G. Vevers (1989) The Tetra encyclopedia of freshwater tropical aquarium fishes. Tetra Press, New Jersey. 208 p.
Goulding, M. (1981) Man and fisheries on an Amazon frontier. In H.J. Dumont (ed.). Developments in Hydrobiology, v. 4. The Hague: W. Tunk Publishers. 137 p.
Soares, M.G.M., R.G. Almeida and W.T. Tunk (1986) The trophic status of the fish fauna in Lago Camaleao, a macrophyte dominated floodplain lake in the middle Amazon. Amazoniana 9(4):511-526.
Keith, P., P.-Y. Le Bail and P. Planquette (2000) Atlas des poissons d'eau douce de Guyane. Tome 2, Fascicule I: Batrachoidiformes, Mugiliformes, Beloniformes, Cyprinodontiformes, Synbranchiformes, Perciformes, Pleuronectiformes, Tetraodontiformes. Collection Patrimoines Naturels 43(I): 286p. Paris: Publications scientifiques du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
IGFA (2001) Database of IGFA angling records until 2001. IGFA, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
Perez Lozano, A., O.M. Lasso-Alcalá, P.S. Bittencourt, D.C. Taphorn, N. Perez and I.P. Farias (2022) A new species of Astronotus (Teleostei, Cichlidae) from the Orinoco River and Gulf of Paria basins, northern South America. Zookeys 1113:111-152. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1113.81240
Comments On Astronotus ocellatus