Pale Red Serpae Tetras

[Myrrhlyn]

Greetings all! Should I be worried about my tetras? I only have four of them, but two of them are looking a bit pale. They are definitely not as red as they were when I got them (about 2-3 weeks ago). My water is fine. Any suggestions to bring back the brighter color? Thanks!

[Fishguy2727]

Proper diet and high quality water should be all that is needed. What exactly are you feeding? What is your water change schedule? What size tank? What filtration?

[jman]

are they showing any strange activity?

[Incredulous_Ed]

Some of the other fish in the tank may be bullying them. maybe some of the other tetras are bullying the pale ones, but not likely. try feeding different foods.

[Myrrhlyn]

Water changes up to this point have been every 2-3 days, but I had the water tested and the guy at the aquarium center said it's fully cycled, so now it's been a week. I feed only once a day, flake food. Behavior seems normal and I don't notice any white spots (that's a sign of ich, right?). The pale seems to go away on it's own, every other day.

20 gal tank
4 tetras
2 otos
6 freshwater shrimp

tank is about 5-6 weeks old with live plants and eco-complete substrate

Thanks again, Merry Christmas!

Myrrhlyn

[Lady Hobbs]

Were these fish the ones that went thru the cycling process? That can set them back for a while. I gave my gourami's color ehancing food that brought the colors out nicely on them.

Now that you aren't doing so many water changes, they may color up nicely again not going thru all that.

[jeffs99dime]

cool. you decided on the ottos. that's awesome.

[zenryoku]

i just got two serpae to compliment my red serpae. They are not as colorful as my red one. But I have noticed that my red serpae is more colorful now then when I got him. I just feed tetra brand tropical flake with blood worms and some hikari brand pellet type tropical fish food as treats.

[*Sarah*]

Fish like a variety of food, so it's good to feed them more than just flakes. Bloodworms (can be bought frozen), freeze dried Tubifex worms, algae flakes, and spirulina flakes are all good supplements to flake food and should be given a few times a week. Also, fish generally do best with 2 or 3 SMALL feedings a day instead of just one.