Discolored Tiger Barbs

[Onfyya]

About 2-3 weeks ago I set up a freshwater tropical tank with 5 tiger barbs, 3 angels and 1 cory cat. about 2 days ago i noticed that on of my barbs is discolored. It looks like his stripes are fading out but they get darker when its time to feed. This is puzzling me because none of the others do this. ????is this normal or what???

 

[Seleya]

What are the water parameters? What size is the tank? Did you cycle the tank before adding the fish or are you cycling with them?

 

[punkrockfish]

yeah, what are the general stats on your tank? could be that this guy is the runt and is stressed out so his colors are lacking.

 

[FroggyFox]

Like these guys said...stress can cause discolorations. Then again sometimes turning the light off can cause them to lose color and color back up when its on. after 2-3 weeks they should be pretty used to their tank, so other sources of stress could be high levels of ammonia or nitrite in the water because your tank is cycling.

Who knows...maybe he just has less coloring than the others and gets excited at feeding time