Paradise Fish Changing Color

**cardiocentric** · 03-25-2012, 05:36 AM

My male paradise fish flares up with aggression from time to time if someone enters his "space" in the tank. I was wondering if anyone has found any articles about this freshwater phenomenon. I've heard they can change color based on water conditions/mood/food/whatnot... but this is so insane to me, his color brightens, his fins are STRAIGHT, and the off-black dots on his face get DARK when he gets mad.

**escamosa** · 03-25-2012, 07:45 AM

It's pretty cool isn't it! Quite a lot of cichlids do the same thing when they're angry. It's a combination of what they call the endocrine - which is in basic terms means the glands throughout the fish - and the nervous system. The pituitry gland makes a hormone that helps make and store the different coloured pigments in the fish!

When the fishes change colour, they don't think about it or choose to do it, it just happens, just like us humans breathing. If they feel threatened, comfortable or attracted to the opposite sex, the nervous system sends messages out to the various glands and BAM, colour change! I find this really interesting too!

Lemme see if I can find a cool article about it, and I'll post the link.

I found one! :)

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/color_control.php

**ScottishFish** · 03-25-2012, 09:24 AM

My gouramis done it when they weren't fighting, when food got put in the tank they suddenly had black stripes! I think one of the nicest changes, IMO, is kribensis, the females can go the most violet/purple colour I've ever seen when trying to show off to the males

**escamosa** · 03-26-2012, 06:14 AM

Originally Posted by ScottishFish

My gouramis done it when they weren't fighting, when food got put in the tank they suddenly had black stripes! I think one of the nicest changes, IMO, is kribensis, the females can go the most violet/purple colour I've ever seen when trying to show off to the males

I'd love to try some Kribs one day.

**ScottishFish** · 03-26-2012, 08:44 AM

Really nice little fish, but one hell of an attitude!

**escamosa** · 03-26-2012, 07:54 PM

A little bit of attitude makes it interesting!

**ScottishFish** · 03-26-2012, 09:36 PM

True! Guess that's the attraction to cichlids

**cardiocentric** · 03-27-2012, 05:24 AM

I've decided that my next tank [my god this hobby is getting more and more addictive by the day] will most definitely be a cichlid tank. The more I read/hear about them the more I gain interest. A friend of mine has a school [I say school loosely] of 19 convicts in a HUGE tank and I fell in love with the whole family of cichlids watching hers.

**escamosa** · 03-27-2012, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by cardiocentric

I've decided that my next tank [my god this hobby is getting more and more addictive by the day] will most definitely be a cichlid tank. The more I read/hear about them the more I gain interest. A friend of mine has a school [I say school loosely] of 19 convicts in a HUGE tank and I fell in love with the whole family of cichlids watching hers.

That's good news! Just be sure to do plenty of research on them. Pick one type and stick to that type, in the one tank. What I mean when I say to pick one type is, either choose African or South American and so on. Not a good idea to mix them all up. I wish you could though! Could make an awesome looking tank!