Qeustion Re Lighting

[Denice45]

Hello, wonder if anyone can help please. We recently set up a 3' freshwater tropical tank; we're beginners but everything going smoothly so far. My question is.... today we bought 4 x Rosy Tetras and 3 x Rainbow Fish. In the tanks in the store the fish looked beautifully coloured.... the Tetras a delicate pale silvery pink and the (juvenile) Rainbows again a pale silvery body with just a hint of colour coming in. We put them in our tank at home and the Tetras now look a dirty brown/orange and the Rainbows pretty nondescript too ! A totally different colour than in the shop. Is it the lighting tubes that we are using?

We have another very small tank and recently transferred a dwarf (orange/blue) gourami and an orange/black/white marbled Angelfish into our new tank... and their colours are really highlighted by the apparently different lighting in the newer, bigger tank.

Both tanks we bought as 'complete sets', i.e. they came with everything including the lighting. If it is the lighting in the bigger tank that's the 'problem', what sort of tubes should we buy to appreciate the Rosy Tetras and Rainbows in their natural colours? (I'm not too concerned about the angel and the gouramis, they're fairly brightly coloured anyhow.

Sorry if this seems a really dumb question but, as I said, we're complete beginners! Many thanks.
Denice

 

[WILDER]

If it's juwel lighting they are very yellow in colour and tend to fetch the plant colours out rather than the fish, you can change them to another make like aqua-glow tubes, what are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, and ph.

 

[rdd1952]

Fish also tend to not show their brightest colors when they're stressed and being netted, bagged and introduced to a new tank is very stressful to them. They will probably show more color once they are more comfortable in the tank but lighting could definitely have an effect.

 

[Denice45]

Thank you both. The lighting tubes in the small tank show off the plants beautifully, but not the fish and vice-versa in the newer, bigger tank... so it must be the lighting. It's not that the fish we introduced today have lost colouration due to stress... rather that they are a totally different, way way darker colour than in the shop. If I didn't know better, I'd say we'd come home with a different bag of fish than we paid for ! (which we haven't). I'll leave them settle for a week and if no change, then try the different lighting.

The tank has been running for about 6 weeks now... the ammonia is zero (is that usual/correct?); nitrite zero; nitrate 25; the ph... can't quite recall but it was just on the hard side of neutral last time I tested a few days ago.

Thanks again
Denise

 

[WILDER]

Just keep an eye on the fish as darkening in colour can be an indication of a bacterial infection.

 

[Denice45]

Okay thanks, Wilder, will keep an eye out for that but unless they all developed a bacterial infection in the 5 minute ride from shop to home, then I doubt it !

Denise