cichlid colors changing overnight?

[dmac]

Last night before bed I was looking at my fish, and the yellow LAB looked like death. It is normally this electric yellow color and it almost looked white over most of it, unless I was imagining things. I thought for sure it was sick and not doing well.

I woke up this morning and flipped on the light and it looked as beautiful as ever......Was it just me or did the fish's color actually change that drastically, and if so why?

 

[Big Ben]

Did you just add the fish to the tank recently? Sometimes fish will change colors when stressed from being moved to a new aquarium.

 

[Zagz]

Cichlids do change color, sometimes it's stress, sometimes breeding behaviour and sometimes it's aggression.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Cichlids do change color, sometimes it's stress, sometimes breeding behaviour and sometimes it's aggression.

I completely agree. My GBR's are always changing color depending on mood, stress, aggression, breeding, etc.

 

[dmac]

OK. I added them to the tank 1 week ago. I did my first water change last night.

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

Perhaps there was a water quality issue with your tank and the water change removed that problem, thus removing the physical stress of the fish.

 

[goalorientation]

I'm not a fish psychologist but normally you can tell by body language and temperment what exactly is up with the fish. For instance, loss of color could indicate malnutrition or any of the things mentioned above. I notice particularly at night with my oscars that they tend to bland out, even with the lights on. I think this is just because of the time of day and they don't have the natural bright lights from the sky to illuminate their scales. See if you can notice if this is a recurring thing where morning they look good and at night they are as you described. If so it may just be the lighting condition.

 

[Jaybird]

My south americans change colour during the night. When I turn on the light in the morning they are not their usual colours. They are usually much more pale, but they quickly go back to their normal colours when the light has been on for a little while.