Firemouth Color?

[Markoi]

hi fish forums. I picked up a firemouth a month ago. I was disappointed at what i found. At the store the FM looked good, but when i put it in the tank some of dorsal and anal fins were gone and the color was duller then the pics ive seen online. Is this temporary? Are the fins gonna grow back? Also i was thinking about returning him and get a more colourful FM. Do you think this is a good idea? Pls repsond, thank you if you responded. P.S the FM was in a tank full of africans so that might be the problem but im not to sure.

 

[Wills]

Sounds like he has been beaten up in the store tank, I would keep this one and give him a good diet along with lots of good water changes maybe a dose the tank with melafix and he will get his colour back pretty quick Once he is healed and calmed down a bit he will colour up again. Also the colours you might have seen on the net are possibly when they are in breeding colours which are often more intense than regular colouration.

 

[star4]

You may have a female, their colour is slightly less than the male as they get older.

 

[Markoi]

Sounds like he has been beaten up in the store tank, I would keep this one and give him a good diet along with lots of good water changes maybe a dose the tank with melafix and he will get his colour back pretty quick Once he is healed and calmed down a bit he will colour up again. Also the colours you might have seen on the net are possibly when they are in breeding colours which are often more intense than regular colouration.

Thanks a lot wills for the great help. ill continue feeding him a good diet and change the water every week. Thanks again. p.s whats melafix and will it affect my other fish? thanks

 

[Wills]

Melafix is a medicine that helps heal fishes fins and scales also has some antibacterial properties to it to prevent infections, it wont harm your other fish or your filter its a herbal remedy really but it does work really well. Pretty handy to have to hand if you have a few cichlids as they will have the odd squabble so just helps to heal up torn fins if it happens.

What other fish do you have and what size tank? Just wondering if there could be any other issues affecting them to loose the colour?

Wills

 

[Markoi]

Melafix is a medicine that helps heal fishes fins and scales also has some antibacterial properties to it to prevent infections, it wont harm your other fish or your filter its a herbal remedy really but it does work really well. Pretty handy to have to hand if you have a few cichlids as they will have the odd squabble so just helps to heal up torn fins if it happens.

What other fish do you have and what size tank? Just wondering if there could be any other issues affecting them to loose the colour?

Wills

my tank is 55 gallon and i have the firemouth, a convict, blue acara and 4 tiger barbs. Also my amm,nit readings are 0 and my nitrates are reading 10. hope this helps, thanks alot for the melafix. imma pick some up when i go to my lfs again. Thanks again

 

[Wills]

Ah right yeah thats cool, think I just posted on your other thread haha! Sounds fine to me so far! Only thing I can think of with the fins is the tiger barbs being in low numbers can make them a bit nippy so they might be the culprits but if yours is the thread im thinking of when you get the numbers up it should be fine