Neons lose cololur at night?

[sugarloves]

Hi guys, yesterday I bought 2 neons (I know, schoolers, but I wanted to make sure they got along fine in my tank b4 adding a ton of them. Im going out to buy more today) and they seemed to be fine in my tank. I left for a couple of hours and when I came back I found one dead in the plants. His colour was gone and he had little chunks missing out of him. I havent seen any agression (even up to this point) so Im figuring he just died and then the fish found him dead and snacked a little. The other guy was fine so I left him be and went to bed. Well, I was reading at night and I happened to look up and my neon was nowhere to be found. Upon searching he was cowarding in the plants and he lacked colour. His blue striple was thin and his red was faded and receded. I thought, oh crap, now this guys gonna die but I turned on the bubble disc to see if that helped and I went back to bed. I thought for sure hed be dead by morning. Well, this morning I woke up to find my lively neon darting all over the tank and more colourful than ever. What gives? Ive heard that some fish become dull in colour when the lights are off. Is this true for neons, should I be worrying?

 

[bungle]

My Rummynoses are always a little less bright when I first turn on the light in the a.m. Not too long after though, they are all colored up, bright and perty as ever.

 

[shawmutt]

Yep, I had cardinals that did the same thing--they're fine.

 

[lmw80]

My neons lose color at night as well. It is probably a form of camoflouge. As for the tetra that died...most likely it was from the change in tanks, as neons are very sensitive. Once he was dead, he was viewed as food, and that is most likely why the chunks were missing out of him.

What size tank and what are the other inhabitants?

 

[sugarloves]

Its a 10 gallon and I have a male and female platty, an ADF, and a male betta. hahah, I know it sounds like trouble but Ive only seen a tiny nip at the male platty from my betta. Most of the betta will come over to investigate what the other fish are doing, but other than that one nip, there has been no agression, infact, they get so close to eachotehr tat times that they practically rub up against eachother. The fish are failry new so I think they are just working out a pecking order still.

 

[lmw80]

What's an adf? adult dwarf puffer??

 

[krap101]

african dwarf frog

 

[lmw80]

oh good...the puffer would have been bad for that tank!

 

[phanmc]

many tetras will lose their color when they become stressed. I had a black skirt tetra get sucked into the filter once and by the time I got it out, it was almost completely silver. It took him about an hour to return to normal.

 

[Aquatalk]

Yep it's tatally normal

 

[Fantasmic]

Yep, I had cardinals that did the same thing--they're fine.

Seconded

 

[sugarloves]

Ok good. I was worried that there was something seriously wrong. I went out today and bought 3 more neons to add. (one of them injured. I made a differnt post for this) That makes a small school of 4. Is that too small still? Im thinking of adding cardnals in a week when the stores get them in. But i might not. 4 neons, 2 platties, a frog and a betta seems kinda maxed for a 10 gallon....or can I push it? All the fish are really small still, cept for the betta.

 

[kenor33]

The bigger the school the more impressive they are. The 12 I have, chase and play all day and yes they are usually pale when i cut the lights on in the morning. Only one thing for ya to do sugarloves, get MTS and get ALOT of neons