Deep-colored GBR?

[dylanuc]

Hey everyone! I've been using this forum for a couple months for advice and figured I should finally register because now I'm stumped. I bought a male German blue ram online, and it arrived healthy today. But... It doesn't look like a gbr. I've never owned a gbr (or any cichlid) before, and I've only been serious with fish keeping for a couple months, so maybe this is just a phenomena I'm unfamiliar with. From my research, gbr's are supposed to be yellow/white with florescent blue and black accents. This one is basically purple with blue accents at the head. He has great temperament for a community tank, though he isn't too active and prefers the back of the tank. He hasn't explored much, just swam across the tank a couple times in the past 6 hours. Could he be sick/stressed? I have the tank lights off while he gets used to the surroundings but I'll turn them on if you guys really want a picture.

Thank you,
Dylan

 

[PassengerTN]

Def going to need photos mate

Jesse

 

[Freakgecko91]

Looks like w normal male GBR to me

You have him over a dark substrate, which will make him darker, plus him being new means he's still probably stressed and hasn't settled in all the way


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[ImACoolguy]

I have black sand and multiple GBR, none have every gotten that dark in color


Caleb

 

[coralbandit]

Good looking GBR.
Lot more red then many show , possibly from dark sub?
I have never kept mine over dark sub so can't say.

Looks healthy.
May take a few days to settle in.
They really prefer(demand in fish language ) temps of 80+.
What temp is the tank?

 

[Rivers2k]

Stressed and black sand together. He is blending in. Give it some time add some lighter colored rocks to off set the black sand. I had firemouths do the same thing when I changed the substrate to black.

 

[dylanuc]

Water is 76-78 F at all times. He's now a little brighter and that orange by the head is more prominent. Still looks totally different from what I think a gbr is supposed to look like though

 

[HUKIT]

I won't ever use black sand again as it darkens the fish far to much. Here is an example of one of my female festae's over a few days.

Within an hour.

Two days later(on eggs).

Final coloration.

To answer your question the fish looks normal but extremely stressed.