littlerob904
Aquarium Advice Regular
My red devil, who seems very healthy, eats fine, exhibits normal behavior, and is the most agressive in the tank suddenly exhibited color changes. His fins seemed to darken a bit and on one side of him, his lips turned completely black. It looks almost like someone colored one side of his mouth with a Sharpie. This all happened in less than 24 hours.
I looked around online and saw some articles claiming that some Red Devils will exhibit color changes and it's no big deal. I've also seen that it can be considered a symptom of ammonia burn.
My tank was fishless cycled before I introduced any fish, I've had fish in the tank for a few weeks now.
As far as I can tell the bacterial colonies are doing their jobs,
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
I did a PWC when the nitrates got up over 20 after the first week and I will be doing another one in the next few days, I was at 10 ppm a the beginning of the week. I added TWC while I filled the tank with a python during the PWC.
Am I doing something horrible wrong? Or is the red devil fine? He has grown quite a bit already and seems completely fine except for the black lips. I'm just worried and don't want to lose another fish. (See background)
Tank background:
I initially stocked the tank with 2 red devils, 2 bumblebees, and 2 green terrors (about 2 weeks ago). One of the green terrors (jumped out I think) the first night, I've yet to find his body and since covered the tank. The smaller of the two red devils is constantly bullied by the one who now has black lips, but he has some good hiding spots and is doing alright. He's lost some scales from getting attacked but is otherwise ok. The larger of the two bumblebees suddenly died a few days ago, I noticed he had been gasping at the top of the tank one evening, I quickly checked the water paramaters and everything was fine. I ruled out oxygen issues since my trickle filter was working well and all the other fish were fine. I attributed it to a parasite or disease he may have picked up, especially since all other fish were thriving. I noticed he had been attacked, presumable by the larger red devil while I was at work and he died the next day.
BTW, tank is a 75g fully cycled. Test kit is <6 months old and there were no irregularities with it when cycling.
I looked around online and saw some articles claiming that some Red Devils will exhibit color changes and it's no big deal. I've also seen that it can be considered a symptom of ammonia burn.
My tank was fishless cycled before I introduced any fish, I've had fish in the tank for a few weeks now.
As far as I can tell the bacterial colonies are doing their jobs,
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
I did a PWC when the nitrates got up over 20 after the first week and I will be doing another one in the next few days, I was at 10 ppm a the beginning of the week. I added TWC while I filled the tank with a python during the PWC.
Am I doing something horrible wrong? Or is the red devil fine? He has grown quite a bit already and seems completely fine except for the black lips. I'm just worried and don't want to lose another fish. (See background)
Tank background:
I initially stocked the tank with 2 red devils, 2 bumblebees, and 2 green terrors (about 2 weeks ago). One of the green terrors (jumped out I think) the first night, I've yet to find his body and since covered the tank. The smaller of the two red devils is constantly bullied by the one who now has black lips, but he has some good hiding spots and is doing alright. He's lost some scales from getting attacked but is otherwise ok. The larger of the two bumblebees suddenly died a few days ago, I noticed he had been gasping at the top of the tank one evening, I quickly checked the water paramaters and everything was fine. I ruled out oxygen issues since my trickle filter was working well and all the other fish were fine. I attributed it to a parasite or disease he may have picked up, especially since all other fish were thriving. I noticed he had been attacked, presumable by the larger red devil while I was at work and he died the next day.
BTW, tank is a 75g fully cycled. Test kit is <6 months old and there were no irregularities with it when cycling.
