Midas Cichlid Changing Colors

[jesse_greer]

when i first got my midas he has a nice dark orange color, now after having him for several months he has changed
into a more pale orange. is this means he is sick ? any help will be appreciated

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Jesse, I suspect none of the members have tackled your question with comments because there are so very many things it could possibly be (not to mention that it's the holiday and everyone has scattered here and there, lol!)

You may very well have a ciclid specific problem that I'm not really qualified to answer but I'll just throw in (in case it's needed) that anytime you see your fish appearing to be more pale, but not just as a temporary result of fear, it's good of course to be sure your water stats are all up to normal.

You want to take a check with your liquid kit and be sure that ammonia and nitrite(NO2) are both rock solid zero ppm and that your nitrate(NO3) levels have not drifted upward away from the normal range you should have tallied in your aquarium log in your notebook. Are you having any problems in that area?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Have a look at the fish's diet. A dark orange is almost always associated with a "color enhancing" diet that contains plenty of things that introduce orange colors. The fish themselves seldom have the ability to produce such a color without the food ingredients. If the color change happened gradually, that is the first thing I would look at. If the color change happened rapidly after no change for a long time, see WD's answer that there may actually be something wrong, and the first place I look is water quality too.

 

[Wills]

Im not the best at Midas as its one of the fish I dont let me self look at because they are gorgeous fish but very aggressive and Im not allowed a big tank for one fish but thats by the by

The best person on this forum to contact for these is Hamfist maybe send him a PM

But I do know that some kinds of Midas do change colour, with some gradually becoming white and orange like a kind of cow pattern going over the body.

That said though the above two comments are quite right but I would not rule out natural colour changes.

Have you checked water quality and does the fish have any other signs of stress? What size tank and tank mates are in there?

If the fish is quite young I have found that some central americans that grow quite fast often loose a bit of colour before a growth spurt.

Wills