Blue Acara's Lacking Colour

[DaveA76]

been noticing lately that my 2 blue acaras are lacking colour or are losing it, the rest of the fish in the tank are fine al the parameters are spot on and they arent been picked on but just seem to be getting paler ?
heres a pic of one

 

[DaveA76]

checked water again tonight
25-26 oC
pH 7.6
ammonia 0 ppm (tap water 0-0.25) 
nitrite 0 
nitrate 20
teted with api freshwater test kit
 
there diet is varied and all the below get used throughout the week
 
Aquarian flake
Tetra Pleco multi wafer
King British catfish pellets
JBL Novo Daph
JBL Novo GranoColour
JBL Novo Tab

 

[TooManyChoices]

There's a range of possibilities. First of all though, your water parameters are looking fine, no problem there.

Cichlids generally show the most colour when breeding, that salvini I see would look almost unrecognisable if breeding. Sub-dominant fish will also show less colours.

Personally, I've never seen a blue acada with really WOW colours. They're almost always grey with little blue flecks when I see them.

 

[star4]

I have given up with blue acara, I just keep getting really poor quality ones that no matter what I do they do not get much bigger than 4" then go pale and fade away.  The white ring around the eyes is of concern possibly its a bacterial infection setting in.