fish lost colour!

[wozz]

hey,

yeh i am getiing some fish from my cousin who is giving up marine because its too time consuming for him. and his fish have all lost their colour. he has a banana wrasse and a dotty back which is half purple half yellow, and all the purple is faded.

i was just wanting to know how to get their colour back? will a good home and some tlc fix it?

 

[Hattie B]

Hi Wozz,

Do you have a pic of these fish?

Loosing color can mean a lot of differnt things.

What are the fish eating? Any new items added to the tank? Stress?

How long have they been like this?

Overall health other then color?

 

[wozz]

nah i havent received them yet. they are eating frozen brine shrimp. im not sure how long they have been like this a month or 2 maybe not sure but i think a while. their overall health seems to be in tact its just their colour is missing, or badly faded. i checked his ammonia levels and they were a bit high,
would that hav caused it???
what can fix it???

thanx...

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

YES! Ammonia and Nitrite should be 0.
Water changes need to be done ASAP

Also, these fish need better foods..Brine shrimp [unless its enriched] has no nutritional value what so ever

 

[Ron Popeil]

agreed. increase the variety of food: mysis, formula 1 and 2, cyclopeeze, etc. all types of flakes, pellets, algaes...

much more pristine water quality will dramatically help.

if he has high ammonia it could be due to many things. too small of a tank. too heavy of feedings. too young of a tank. poor filtration. either way, make sure your tank is far better than his, and they should regain most if not all of their color.

 

[wozz]

all my levels are at 0.where are am i able to get mysis and cyclopeez? is it frozen or live?

yeh i made him do a water change while i was there. his tank is large enough.

should i qt them first, just incase they have disease from his water or they wont affect my tanks?

 

[Hattie B]

Wozz,

If these fish don't look that healthy and are having problems IMO it would be best to QT them.

Also, in Qt you can teach them to eat different foods. Just like was mentioned BS is not the best source of food especially if it is the only thing offered. They should have lots of choices for overall health. I would even add vitamins to the food when you get them to help with their overall condition.

You can get almost everything at a decent/good LFS or order it online.

 

[wozz]

hey,
nah they look healthy just faded colour. my BS is vitamin enriched but yeh if thats still no good ill try feeding them flake food.

i picked them up today and they are already looking a lot happier in my tanks, though i did not add them to my good tanks just incase there was something wrong with them. im gonna wait until he starts getting his colour back before i do just to be on the safe side i think.