Honey gourami seems to have lost color - very pale

[MammaBearinTN]

I have 5 honey gouramis - all are lemon yellow and two have a tiny bit of orange/sunset on their fins.

Anyway, one is much paler than usual, although acting completely normal. Nothing noticeable on body or fins. Just nothing. Water parameters are fine The only change is the bag of carbon I placed in the Aquaclear filter to rid the water of some tannins that have leached from driftwood.

Any clues as why this gourami is so pale?

 

[Colin_T]

Stress from being bullied by the other one if they are the same sex.
Removing the tannins will often cause fish to fade a bit.
Light coloured substrate, no picture on the back of the tank, no plants will all contribute to pale fish that don't show good colour.

 

[MammaBearinTN]

Stress from being bullied by the other one if they are the same sex.
Removing the tannins will often cause fish to fade a bit.
Light coloured substrate, no picture on the back of the tank, no plants will all contribute to pale fish that don't show good colour.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!
You know, now that I am studying them, I think I have three that are lighter colored, but this one is more so than the other two. I belive the tannins were darkening the water so much, I don't think I could see the difference in color very much. (I suspect these are females, too. )
They're all active, eating, and have no signs of physical illnesses, so I'm going to assume they are all ok.
I still haven't figured out why I love these so much, but I do!

 

[Colin_T]

Honey gouramis are a nice fish. They are peaceful and don't cause problems to other fish.

 

[Ken Sauer]

I have 5 honey gouramis - all are lemon yellow and two have a tiny bit of orange/sunset on their fins.

Anyway, one is much paler than usual, although acting completely normal. Nothing noticeable on body or fins. Just nothing. Water parameters are fine The only change is the bag of carbon I placed in the Aquaclear filter to rid the water of some tannins that have leached from driftwood.

Any clues as why this gourami is so pale?

I'm curious; how are the gouramis doing? I had 5 and slowly 4 of them became pale, thin, and eventually died.

 

[MammaBearinTN]

I'm curious; how are the gouramis doing? I had 5 and slowly 4 of them became pale, thin, and eventually died.

Doing well. They all started off pale, and four of them have started to show a lot more color. Three are still quite a bit paler, but I really think they might be females. They all seem healthy.

If I do have 4 m/3 f, I'm going to have to do something about that down the road, probably. Right now, they get along great.

 

[MammaBearinTN]

Doing well. They all started off pale, and four of them have started to show a lot more color. Three are still quite a bit paler, but I really think they might be females. They all seem healthy.

If I do have 4 m/3 f, I'm going to have to do something about that down the road, probably. Right now, they get along great.

I'm curious; how are the gouramis doing? I had 5 and slowly 4 of them became pale, thin, and eventually died.

Hey, did you get my private message?