Malawi Fish Discolouration

[The_Priest]

Hi there ive got an usual problem, ive got a malawi set up and all but one fish is thriving, this is a haplochromis ahli, ive got 2 of them and only one them has coloured up beautifully, this fish in question is almost transparent hes lost all colour and is very lazy, ive been looking online to see if its a disease and all symptoms point to stress, the water paremeters are fine ph is stable at 8.0 , this fish feeds well but never seems to grow, what could this be?

 

[sharktale]

Is he definately a male?

 

[sylvia]

This kind of thing is common with many malawi cichlids. If you keep more than one male of a species (or even of species that just resemble each other), the dominant male will grow and develop very attractive, bright coloring while the lower ranking males will take on a more humble appearance and some will even mimmick the females' coloration so as not to attract the attention of the dominant male. Often times the male will not grow much either. As soon as the dominant male is removed, this fish wuld experience a growth spurt and suddenly gain all color. Under the circumstances, however, I suggest you remove the dis-colored fish and replace it with a couple of females. Just in case, I would also check water quality. However, as you say only one of two males is experiencing this, I doubt it's a water quality issue (which would have affected the other as well).

 

[The_Priest]

superb folks thanks alot so you think he should get flushed? rock n roll man

 

[G_Sharky]

Don't flush him dude...I'm sure you could bring it back to your LFS for a trade-in....

 

[freddyk]

If you put that male into a tank where he becomes dominent, he'll take to the role and become a nice fish. Flushing any live fish, let alone a perfectly healthy one, seems like a strange idea!

 

[Angry_Platy]

I have 4 male peacocks (Aulonocara rubescens).....one of them is REALLY bright.....pretty colours and all....the other 3 are quite dull.....

They are all equally aggro to each other tho The only fish they are scared of is my lone RTBS

 

[G_Sharky]

If you have more than 1 male of the same species then the most dominant one is the one that would colour up the others would look dull, but if you have males of different species then it's a different story, most of my fish are males, but i don't have 2 or more fish of the same species, so most of them are starting to color up,....