Black Skirt Tetra Strangeness

[Skai]

So, I've got some black skirt tetras some with long fins some with normal. The question I have is that before I turn on the light I notice that their skirts are really very black. But after not very much time at all (say thirty minutes or so) the black coloration is already fading out. I turn out the light and the black returns. Is this normal? I know some fish do change color based on the light but I didn't think tetras were one of those. If it's not normal and a sign of stress I would expect the color to be pale on them the entire time so I'm rather confused.

 

[QuakingAspen]

I am not sure. My black skirts and black moor(more of a silver moor) do the exact opposite, when the light is off they are lighter and about five minutes after I turn the light on they get way darker.

 

[fish wrangler]

So, I've got some black skirt tetras some with long fins some with normal. The question I have is that before I turn on the light I notice that their skirts are really very black. But after not very much time at all (say thirty minutes or so) the black coloration is already fading out. I turn out the light and the black returns. Is this normal? I know some fish do change color based on the light but I didn't think tetras were one of those. If it's not normal and a sign of stress I would expect the color to be pale on them the entire time so I'm rather confused.

My black skirts do the same thing.

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[Skai]

My black skirts do the same thing.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Huh, that's really quite odd but I'm glad it's something other people are experiencing too. In the spot they used to be in they had more constant light due to some windows. Maybe that's why I didn't notice this before. Thanks for the input.

 

[Angela1108]

It's normal!! We went on vacation once and got in at like midnight. The tank lights had been off and obviously no daylight but just coming home I wanted to check on everyone. My cardinals were white which freaked me out super bad but after like 15 mins with light they were normal. My black skirts changed too just not as bad. It happens all the time with the light - it's just usually the sun hits the tank with sunlight before I see them so I freaked.


No worries


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[Skai]

It's normal!! We went on vacation once and got in at like midnight. The tank lights had been off and obviously no daylight but just coming home I wanted to check on everyone. My cardinals were white which freaked me out super bad but after like 15 mins with light they were normal. My black skirts changed too just not as bad. It happens all the time with the light - it's just usually the sun hits the tank with sunlight before I see them so I freaked.


No worries


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

That's pretty much what's happened here. I'd never seen them shift colors so dramatically so I went 'oh god what now?!' Especially since I lost nearly all of my fish but one amazingly stubborn Black Skirt to Ich recently. With the Ich now gone I got some friends for Ripley and this color thing started happening so I was worried.