Dramatic color change?

[Krazy]

Hey everybody. Just to start, I have 9 fish in a 56 gallon tank and my quality is fine. Im also new to keeping cichlids. I had seven, but when I decided to add 2 new ones, some weird stuff happened. My demasoni usually stays a very light blue, with darker blue stripes. When I added the new fish, his dark blue became almost black and his light blue turned into a deep rich blue. It happened to a lot of my other fish too. My bumblebees light tan stiles turned dark brown. Even my new julidochromis started flashing a blue stripe which was usually white. None of them are acting aggressive or strange, they're colors are just changing. We can even watch it happen. Anybody know what's going on?

 

[Ckennedy37]

My demasoni do the same thing. They change from the normal blue with black stripes to almost solid blue sometimes. Fish will change there color alot depending on mood, stress, or excitement.

 

[kay-bee19]

...My demasoni usually stays a very light blue, with darker blue stripes. When I added the new fish, his dark blue became almost black and his light blue turned into a deep rich blue. It happened to a lot of my other fish too...None of them are acting aggressive or strange, they're colors are just changing. We can even watch it happen. Anybody know what's going on?

Colors, patterns and vibrance are all a form of visual 'body language' with these fish, communicating dominance, sexual maturity and submission, etc.

Mbuna's are social-aggressive fish and are pre-disposed to form hierarchies. They will strive to maintain their positions or advance up the 'pecking order' depending on opportunities.

Your existing fish are shifting to their fullest colors, vibrance and colors to advertise their dominance to the newly added fish to protect their status in the tank. New fish that accept the existing fish as being dominant over them will not resort to displaying their best colors at the time of introduction.

I am suspecting that your fish are not fully matured (e.g., demasoni's are normally solid black with neon blue stripes, not dark blue with light blue stripes). Fully matured mbuna's will generally permanently display their best colors unless their vibrance is temporarily surpressed by other dominants in the tank.