Pale Texas Cichlid.

[pitt420dude]

For a while now my 7" Male Texas Cichlid has appeared pale and whitish from the gills forward. He is acting like his same ol' self (moving around the gravel and always hungry. Any theories as to why he is pale towards the front?

 

[J-Aqua]

Water quality? Nitrites / ates / amonia? Have you changed his diet lately? Anything new?

J

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

I've noticed a lot of color variation/changes with the few Texas' I've owned over the years.

 

[pitt420dude]

I think the water params are okay but I havent checked recently. The paleness only exists on his front part and it often goes away (very rapidly) when he gets fed. Again, otherwise he is acting fine and I have often heard that these are VERY VERY hardy fish so I was basically looking to see if others have experienced similar phenomena and it seems that some others have experinced the same.

Anybody else experienced cichlids change color?

 

[ezy33]

Girlfriend?

 

[Reefmonkey]

Like VoodooChili said, there is a lot of color variation in Texas cichlids. A couple of mine in my pond look exactly like you describe yours. I have seen pictures of Texas cichlids in magazines and books, many of them taken in the wild and of breeding fish, that have shown fish which are very pale anteriorly, with their color changing to almost black before they get to the caudal fin.

 

[pitt420dude]

Hmm...very intersting, He is still fine so I suppose it is natural.

 

[ksfishguy]

Could be stress? Who else is in the tank? I find that they will look pale when they are no longer the dominant fish in the tank. My guess is that another fish has taken over and is stressing your texas out.

 

[pitt420dude]

He is the only fish in the tank, and he is probably already too big for the 20 gal. He colors up during feeding usually. As I look at him now he is fine and darkly colored.

 

[ksfishguy]

Oh, I thought he was in your 55, he sure needs a bigger tank.

 

[pitt420dude]

Yeah he does, but I dunno when that is going to happen. I can't get another or a bigger tank, and he would destroy my 55 gal community in about 30 seconds.

He seems happy enough and the small tank size is keeping him from gettin any bigger. My frat brother owned his parents and he was born. Eventually he moved away and I rescued him from another "non-aquarist" frat brother who was "watching" the tank. It was awful, the water was about half full, and the only maitenance he did was to add water and feed him (occasionally, since he was out of food when I rescued him). I don't even think there was filtration for a long while.

I'm amazed he survived, but he did. He is much much happier now with a clean tank and fresh food everyonce in a while. Thats him in my avatar.

Maybe some day I'll get a bigger tank, but as it is now I have a 55 gal, a 20 gal, and an out of commision 8-9 year old 5 gal (my first tank, very very fond memories).