Color Fading In Black Tetras

[Vladimir]

Hey AC,
I've been observing my 10G tank, and have noticed that my black tetras, 2/3 of them have turned to almost ghost-grey color, the other 1 black tetra is fine, has good sparkly-silver and nice black color to it, but the other two i can barely see the black vertical lines on them that make them BLACK-tetras :help:
My gourami is fine with beautiful blue and redish colors all throughout and my panda cory is defined (put in 2 peppered corys today thumbs2: , REALLY hope they'll stay peppered and NOT fade)
WELL.....the question is; Is there a way to BRING OUT, or HELP the fish to their FULL color-potential of the fish? because i DO feed them "color-enhancing" flakes, although i haven't noticed ANY noticeable difference anyway. is there any NATURAL way or tips to keeping your freshwater fish COLORFUL?
THNX for the help,

Vlad.

[rich311k]

How old is the tank? What are your parameters?

[Northernguy]

Are you doing your water changes?
Peppers get too big for a ten gallon and need to be in schools of 6 or more to be truly happy!
What brand of food are you feeding?

[Vladimir]

i'm doing my water changes as usual every week, about 20% each time. the tank is about 2 months old, it's cycled already, then i HAD/HAVE still a little excess ammonia is there (i put some bio-support in there to "stabilize" some).
still don't quite have a test kit. the black-tetras seem to be getting enough flakes (all 3 seem to be all over when feeding) then gourami also gets enough, will post BRAND of flakes, and pellets tomorrow.
thnx for fast replies,
regards,

Vlad

[rich311k]

You really need a test kit. The ammonia is a sign something is not right. You may want to do more than 20% water changes at a time, you are pretty well stocked.

[Vladimir]

yea i feed the fish NUTRAFIN Max flakes, and sinking pellets (for bottom-feeders)

[alienxp]

Hello vlad....

I just recently purchased some of the Black widow Tetra's myself, and then did a google search about them and came across this page with info about them:

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on the page it mentions this and I quote:

"Once the Black Widow Tetra achieves its mature size at approximately one year, the dark coloration slowly begins to fade to a silvery gray. They remain relatively small, reaching an adult length of approximately two inches."

...perhaps this is the reason your's "have turned to almost ghost-grey color," as you mentioned.


......Chris

[mac]

IMO since you have Ammonia in your water something is wrong. I would do larger water changes.

Now what is your full stocking of your tank? Also what type of filter do you run? And is this tank planted?

It sounds to me that one the fish are not happy, needing a larger school because these fish are shoalers even though they fight each other and other fish.

Anther thing what type of Gourami do you have?

As for the Corys your best bet would be to either up grade tank or return them. Because they will need more space.

mac

[DrNic]

I'm have to agree that it sounds like somethings up with the tank. Get us some more info and we can probably help a bit. thumbs2: