Hello, I have some fish that fade in colour and I don't know why or if this is bad? I have a pleco that goes from dark black with whie spots to a very light grey colour. Another pleco went from dark brown and black to beige and has never turned back. 2 african zebra loaches that are beige and dark black when light beige, but as soon as they ate they were back to the normal colour, now one of my ruby sharks has faded, what the heck is going on? I have a big white ruins thing in the centre of the tank, are they changing colour from hanging out on it and eating off it or could it be poisoning them? Just want to make sure this is not something bad?
Fish losing colour
- Thread starter ACHICK
- Start date
They seem to be behaving fine, just their colour fades and then on some of them it comes back. What do you mean adaptive coloration? What is that? I have to take a water sample into the fish store for testing, but I just finished doing a water change and added the water conditioner and bio-support. Like I said, they all seem to be behaving fine and they are all eating. It is hard to tell what the plecos are up to because they hide out a lot, they aren't very social. 
The male black molly was just sitting on the ground today, which was kind of weird to see, I had to check to see if he was still alive, but he is and he came up to the top and is swimming around fine now as soon as I fed them and then did the water change. I am probably just an overly worried parent. Every time I see a little spot of white I think Oh no, they have ick or something. I have one Bala shark that is a little rough looking, but it came that way. It seems to have a much smaller body and even a different sort of head than the other one, I am thinking that maybe one is female and one is male. But the small one looks like it's fins are cut, sort of seperated in some places, not all attached like the other one. I've named it runt, because it sure looks like the runt of the pack. I heard that it is not good to have Molly's in a freshwater tank, is this true? I just took a billion pictures of the fish, so I am going to sort through them and then get some posted up. Thank you.
The male black molly was just sitting on the ground today, which was kind of weird to see, I had to check to see if he was still alive, but he is and he came up to the top and is swimming around fine now as soon as I fed them and then did the water change. I am probably just an overly worried parent. Every time I see a little spot of white I think Oh no, they have ick or something. I have one Bala shark that is a little rough looking, but it came that way. It seems to have a much smaller body and even a different sort of head than the other one, I am thinking that maybe one is female and one is male. But the small one looks like it's fins are cut, sort of seperated in some places, not all attached like the other one. I've named it runt, because it sure looks like the runt of the pack. I heard that it is not good to have Molly's in a freshwater tank, is this true? I just took a billion pictures of the fish, so I am going to sort through them and then get some posted up. Thank you.Well we have only had the tank for about three months. It started with 2 mollys and eight platys. Once the tank was cycling, we gave away 5 of the platys and started adding new fish. First the ruby sharks and african dwarf frogs, then the clown loaches, then the plecos, then the bala sharks and finally the golden zebra loaches about a month ago.
I do a water change every month, vacuum up all the waste and extra food and scrape the algea off the glass then and usually in between as well. The filter only needs to be changed every six months, so I haven't done that yet.
I did however, use a scrub brush that I didn't realize had soap residue on it, until I saw soap bubbles coming up in the tank, so I did a water change right away and added bio-support and water conditioner and I have done one normal water change since then. I guess that happened about a month ago though and I was really worried that all the fish were going to die, but they all seemed fine. Jeff says it was such a small amount for a 55 gallon tank that it shouldn't affect them?
I have never had the water checked, so I don't know about the ph or ammonia levels.
I do a water change every month, vacuum up all the waste and extra food and scrape the algea off the glass then and usually in between as well. The filter only needs to be changed every six months, so I haven't done that yet.
I did however, use a scrub brush that I didn't realize had soap residue on it, until I saw soap bubbles coming up in the tank, so I did a water change right away and added bio-support and water conditioner and I have done one normal water change since then. I guess that happened about a month ago though and I was really worried that all the fish were going to die, but they all seemed fine. Jeff says it was such a small amount for a 55 gallon tank that it shouldn't affect them?
I have never had the water checked, so I don't know about the ph or ammonia levels.
After having the water checked, and if all of the parameters are A-OK, I would look to doing water changes more frequently ... 20-25% every week for awhile. Then perhaps every 2 weeks as a regular course. Water temp OK? If you vacuum when you do your water changes, you can kill two birds . . . The filter that hasn't been cleaned for 6 mos .... I wonder about that. A cleaning wouldn't hurt and you might be surprised at the crud that built up. Might be surprised what you find. Re: adaptive coloration ... changes in color to adapt to the surroundings.... may not be a big factor in this case. Then too, Bobrob, offered some good observation re: stressors. Be interesting to know how the water checks out.
Yes, when I do a water change, I vacuum up all the crap as well. We have only had the filter running for 3 months so far, but I called the store to confirm and they said it only needs to be changed once every 6 months. I will let you know what they say about the water when I get it checked. The fish were all back to normal colour again last night. I think you may be right about the colour adaptation, the colour they go is the same colour as the rocks we have on the bottom of the tank, so maybe they are just trying to blend in? Thank you.
I'm no expert on fish species (I only have plecos, clownloaches, and dwarf puffers). When I mistakenly put the puffers in with the clowns and plecos, however, I saw something that sounds like your shark (Runt I think you called). The fins of one of my clowns looked ragged, and he seemed to be suffering from stress (clown loaches do change colour in response to stress or illness). The solution was simple: when I wasn't looking, the Dwarf Puffers were attacking the fins of the clown. Any chance you have that kind of aggression in your tank? My pleco seemed to behave differently after the clowns discovered they liked to eat his algae discs.
One of my Ruby Sharks is bigger than all the other fish and it chases the other fish aroung the tank constantly, he is a big meany!!! So maybe that is why he looks like that, I thought maybe he was just born somewhat deformed? He seems healthy and eats and swims around, he just looks pretty bad. All the other fish have maintained their normal colours now since we did the water change, except the one pleco that seems to change to match whatever surface he is on, beige when on the rocks and castle, dark brown when on the lava rock... he is unique. So I think it was probably the water, once a month for a water change just must not be enough and me being a new fish person, I was probably feeding them too much as well. The two Mollys have white on them, but I think that is because they like some salt in the water and we don't put any salt in our tank. I probably should add some for them, but then I don't know if that would hurt the other fish and I read that the white stuff on the Mollys isn't contagious and I don't think it is suppose to hurt them, but I am not sure. They still seem fine, they swim around and eat and everything. Thanks for all the advice everyone.
So I think it was probably the water, once a month for a water change just must not be enough and me being a new fish person, I was probably feeding them too much as well. The two Mollys have white on them, but I think that is because they like some salt in the water and we don't put any salt in our tank. I probably should add some for them, but then I don't know if that would hurt the other fish and I read that the white stuff on the Mollys isn't contagious and I don't think it is suppose to hurt them, but I am not sure. They still seem fine, they swim around and eat and everything. Thanks for all the advice everyone.