For a while now my 7" Male Texas Cichlid has appeared pale and whitish from the gills forward. He is acting like his same ol' self (moving around the gravel and always hungry. Any theories as to why he is pale towards the front?
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Thank you so much for all your help. I'm now going green.
I think the water params are okay but I havent checked recently. The paleness only exists on his front part and it often goes away (very rapidly) when he gets fed. Again, otherwise he is acting fine and I have often heard that these are VERY VERY hardy fish so I was basically looking to see if others have experienced similar phenomena and it seems that some others have experinced the same.
Anybody else experienced cichlids change color?
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Thank you so much for all your help. I'm now going green.
Like VoodooChili said, there is a lot of color variation in Texas cichlids. A couple of mine in my pond look exactly like you describe yours. I have seen pictures of Texas cichlids in magazines and books, many of them taken in the wild and of breeding fish, that have shown fish which are very pale anteriorly, with their color changing to almost black before they get to the caudal fin.
Could be stress? Who else is in the tank? I find that they will look pale when they are no longer the dominant fish in the tank. My guess is that another fish has taken over and is stressing your texas out.
He is the only fish in the tank, and he is probably already too big for the 20 gal. He colors up during feeding usually. As I look at him now he is fine and darkly colored.
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Thank you so much for all your help. I'm now going green.
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