redtail shark losing its black?

[exodus]

Slowly since I brought my redtail home from the LFS a month or so ago he's been getting less and less black. I'm pretty sure he's being fed properly (I feed flake, freezedried blood worms and algae wafers), but thats the only thing I could think of that would be making him lose his color.

Any ideas?

His red is still as red as can be, its just the black.

 

[severum mama]

What are your water perameters? How often do you do water changes? Has your shark's behavior changed at all, that you've noticed? Does he look skinny or anything?

 

[Ky'smommy]

well i noticed when my red tail got older and larger his blackness slowly turned a dark gray.
And it was weird i had him for months and then i didnt see him forever we moved and left the tank there until we got settled. and he almost tripled in size. his color did change since then.
Just a suggestion if everything else is normal.
good luck with him. they are neat little creatures.

 

[exodus]

It behaves as it always has. Water params are completely in check, but the pH has dropped a little bit with my DIY CO2. Looks fine as far as too skinny goes as well.

I do a 25-50% water change every week depending on how much crap needs vaccuming.

 

[tropicfishman]

my red tailed shark will turn completely white, tail and all when it feels stressed, make sure he has a cave or something to call his own so he can hide

 

[F-18 TECH]

I have had several red tailed sharks that have changed to an almost grey color upon reaching sexual maturity. I have also seen them do a presto-chango act during breeding, going from black to almost white. So maybe this is a natural thing for your fish to be doing like many other fish. Maybe it feels threatened by another fish in the tank. Observe the fish for several hours in a week and see if the color changes at all while it has dealings with its tank mates.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Biggest thing for red tails, WATER CONDITIONS. I use mine to guage my water conditions. If I see the slightest change, then I automatically do a PWC. But since I do 50% weekly now, my red tail is a beautiful black, with a very bright red tail. So my thoughts, not enough PWC's. If you do a 30% weekly, you should have no problems at all with him getting grey.

Here's my parameters to compare to yours:

75G Planted
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 20ppm
phosphate 1.5ppm
kh 70
ph driven down to 6.4 via CO2 injection, normally 7.2.
No gravel vacs, heavily planted tank. Just light cleanup up front and pruning on occasion.
50% weekly PWC

Edit:
May also be caused by stress of other inhabitants, as stated in another post. But I've never seen this myself. I've had mine 3 months now, and had one for 2 1/2 years when I was in college, and never seen one turn almost white. Just slightly greyish, which a PWC corrected the problem. I sold that guy at 6 inches when I quit college and went into the Navy. My guy now is just under 3 inches, and very beautiful.

 

[exodus]

It could be stress, I have a CAE in there too and they love to go at it sometimes. Its not constant though, so I'd think it must be water quality.

Off to do a PWC..