Insight why one ember tetra stayed paler than the rest?

[curious23]

Hello! I’m just curious if anyone has any insight why one my ember tetras is more paler than the others. It’s been that way since I got it (almost 3 months ago). Doesn’t act like it’s stressed. Eats happily and always comes out to say hi and seems active. It does get chased more by the others from time to time, but for the most part they’re peaceful with each other. It doesn’t seem to hide or appear stressed bexause of that. It’s gained some colour since I got it, but it’s still fairly pale compared to the rest.

They are in a 10 gallon planted tank, heated to 24.5-25.0 Celsius, double sponge filter with seachem matrix added. The tank is almost 4 months old. Ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 5 ppm, ph about 7.5-8.0, GH 7, kh 7. I feed them once a day a variety of flaked, pellet, and frozen foods. There are 8 ember tetras and 1 nerite snail. I used to have a honey guarami, but he sadly developed dropsy. I’m considering adding a group of Pygmy Cory’s and shrimp, but I do worry about overcrowding. I’d love to have a 20 gallon long instead, but unfortunately I do not have the space or resources at this time to do so. Sometime down the road that is the plan.

Any thoughts about what might be going on would be very helpful and appreciated. Thank you! ?

PS on my end it looks like the pictures are upside down. Sorry about that! Not sure how to fix it.

 

[Andy Sager]

With fish, a faded color is usually a sign of illness but with Tetras, it's also a sign of status within the school. If your fish in question is otherwise acting normal with feeding and swimming and the other fish are brightly colored, it is most likely a subordinate male and when chased, it's most likely an Alpha male doing the chasing because the subordinate male may have tried to breed with one of the females.
There may be a little fin nipping and possibly a small ding from the chase but as long as the fish is not getting severely beaten up during the chasing, it's fine. He knows his place in the school. If you have another tank you can place him in with a female or two, he should color back up.

 

[curious23]

With fish, a faded color is usually a sign of illness but with Tetras, it's also a sign of status within the school. If your fish in question is otherwise acting normal with feeding and swimming and the other fish are brightly colored, it is most likely a subordinate male and when chased, it's most likely an Alpha male doing the chasing because the subordinate male may have tried to breed with one of the females.
There may be a little fin nipping and possibly a small ding from the chase but as long as the fish is not getting severely beaten up during the chasing, it's fine. He knows his place in the school. If you have another tank you can place him in with a female or two, he should color back up.

Thank you for your reply! That makes a lot of sense. I knew they had a bit of a heirarchy in their group, but for some reason it didn’t cross my mind that the lowest rank would be less colourful. It makes sense he’s a male too. He seemed bigger than the other males, but also didn’t have the same shape as the females. I really wasn’t sure what he was! I do have one feisty male in there that’s super vibrant, so he must be the alpha. I haven’t noticed any injuries or aggressive fighting. Every day I learn something new in this hobby!

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you for your reply! That makes a lot of sense. I knew they had a bit of a heirarchy in their group, but for some reason it didn’t cross my mind that the lowest rank would be less colourful. It makes sense he’s a male too. He seemed bigger than the other males, but also didn’t have the same shape as the females. I really wasn’t sure what he was! I do have one feisty male in there that’s super vibrant, so he must be the alpha. I haven’t noticed any injuries or aggressive fighting. Every day I learn something new in this hobby!

Yeah, there is always something new being discovered or found. I've been keeping fish for coming up on 59 years, spent 45+ years in the fish business and still don't know it all because there's always something new being discovered or a new specie being found. As a commercial fish breeder, you get to see a lot of different behaviors so your situation was an easy diagnosis for me. That just comes with experience. Observation is always the first step to figuring out things. Now you know it's not the size of the fish in the fight that matters but the size of the fight in the fish. The smaller young ones always eventually take over the older larger ones until the next smaller young ones comes to challenge them. It's a vicious circle.

 

[curious23]

Yeah, there is always something new being discovered or found. I've been keeping fish for coming up on 59 years, spent 45+ years in the fish business and still don't know it all because there's always something new being discovered or a new specie being found. As a commercial fish breeder, you get to see a lot of different behaviors so your situation was an easy diagnosis for me. That just comes with experience. Observation is always the first step to figuring out things. Now you know it's not the size of the fish in the fight that matters but the size of the fight in the fish. The smaller young ones always eventually take over the older larger ones until the next smaller young ones comes to challenge them. It's a vicious circle.

That makes complete sense. I’m glad it was a quick and easy diagnosis! Haha. Thank you again for your expertise. I appreciate it!

 

[Andy Sager]

That makes complete sense. I’m glad it was a quick and easy diagnosis! Haha. Thank you again for your expertise. I appreciate it!