Help ........i Think

[Jonny_russell]

ok

so all my fish had been pretty much fine...........

apart from my peppered cories dying off at one month intervals.......something i cant seem to avoid

my rescued BW tetras slowly dying off ............they were in a very bad way when i got them

but apart from that my stats have been good, my firemouth and bluue acaras have been brilliant

anyway i have been away from home for a couple of days and the wife fed them for one of those days (the prescribed small amount), anyway i got home and the timer for the lights was shagged, so i put the lights on manually to feed them (it was late pm and way past their normal bedtime)and i nearly crapped myself....they were so pale and uninterested in food and quite listless...so i started to panic

so i counted to ten and thought i would give it an hour, their colour slowly started returning



SO MY QUESTION IS - is there something wrong or have i stressed them by 'waking them up'?

they have been completely fine since 9back to normal regime)


my additional question is

the blue acaras are still quite young-i bought three of them at roughly 1" about 3 months ago

1 is obviously a male - he has far outgrown the rest and is a good 3" at least (hard to tell with the tail) and his colouring is quite dark (normally) BUT his scales look very chunky - not sticking out just big scales

2 looks like a female with a more rounded head and is at least 2 1/2" now, a lot more petite scales and but with a more green tinge

3 looks like a female runt of the litter at about 2", usually pale, nearly always hiding and nearly always with damage to her 'brow'


the firemouth - similar age and about 2 - 2 1/2" ----- he chases the acaras but very rarely is there any contact, and most of the time he is fine with them, he does however get a huge strop when the smallest (No3) acara takes refuge in one particular cave

Am i doing anything obviously wrong?

i'm starting to fear for the smallest acara who hides in the cave.......she used to be really active when there were 8 rescued tetras in the tank

 

[Wills]

Just sounds like they got a bit of a shock when the lights came on Happens to me all the time if I have to go in the lounge after we have gone to bed I cant look in the tank it freaks me out thinking there is something wrong we are all the same haha.

I have a young HRP like your male BA not sticking out just very fat.... very very fat though he has slimmed down the past few weeks.

I also have a small geophagus like your smallest BA she worries me as well so tiny not grown at all but always eating and shes boss of the pack!

I presume she will eventually start to grow as the other 3 have started now but see how they go sometimes quite worried about her....

Wills

 

[Jonny_russell]

cheers mate

soits not just me then


it was just that they were so pale they were nearly albino

i love the BA ........ most friendly fish i have ever had

i love the FM ........ he is just funny

i would hate to have to decide between them !!!!

although a calmer tank would be minus the FM !!!

i'm down to my last rescue tetra now..........very sad.......he has actually grown back half the tale he was missing.........but i think i need a more sturdy 'dither' fish to calm the cichlids down??

 

[Luzi]

Some fish go pale at night - it's part of their camouflage
My platies go almost white when they sleep and turning the light on always shocks them. I've learnt to leave them alone after 10pm