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Tetra Color Fade Cycles?

7K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Teebo 
#1 ·
I have a school of about 18 Ember Tetra in an Iwagumi, they are very well fed each day...nice and plump. I have a few females that are so orange you would swear they are a shade of red. About a day or two a month I turn on the lights and see they are ALL faded in color, the females look faded like the males. Within a day or two they all return to their deeper coloration. I am wondering what is causing this and if it is natural or stress. I sort of feel this happens more in the morning if I turn the lights on outside their normal timer window, as if they fade at night or when they sleep....I am not sure?
 
#2 ·
Definitely sounds like stressed fish since they all faded. I had similar issues with my white clouds a couple months back after I added a bunch of Amano's. The tank was planted heavily enough that I wasn't finding the Amano's that died early so their little bodies were rotting in my tank. I actually was pretty lucky because I came into the office one night just to check on the tank after adding them, noticed my white clouds were faded almost completely white. Did a massive water change immediately, they looked good by morning. My ammonia tests never detected the ammonia because my filtration is good enough, but it was enough to really mess with the fish. I had a similar situation again when I was running my CO2 high 24/7 to combat staghorn. Same deal, came in one night to find all the fish white, did a big water change and they were fine by morning. Added a surface skimmer and more surface agitation to resolve that.

In your case, I don't know what could be causing it. Do you have any shrimp in the tank that could die in hidden places? I know lights changing can stress fish, but for them to be faded for a couple days, I feel like that might be more water related. I think light stressing them out would be very temporary.

Did you do a water change during this period of color loss?
 
#4 ·
I don't think you need to worry. Tetras loose their color when the lights are out, especially over night.

I remember freaking out when I saw my cardinals do it the first time, but after asking around on the forums I was reasured that it's normal.

I've read that they do it at night so that they are less visible to prey.

Once the lights come back on, it takes mine about 5-10 minutes before they get their colors back.

As long as they don't act stressed, and they eventually get the color back after the aquarium lights turn on I think they are fine.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the replies

No I do not have dead shrimp, even if I did it would not affect my tanks. They do not affect my ammonia levels, I have about 50 RCS in this tank and they die from time to time, I never even remove them when they die.

This is a 16 gallon tank, no coincidence with water changes. I only do a WC once a month.

Pauliewoz is correct I think, you see I am never around when my lights turn on. The timer turns them on at 8 and I never make it to that room until usually 9 or 10. So I guess I just never experience the coloration change, soon after I posted this they were all back to full color.

I think its very interesting how they theorize fish loose their pigment at night for safety reasons. Thank you
 
#7 ·
WOW I just experienced the most dramatic change I have seen yet. The dark cycle on my tank always has ambient room light of some sort, and today the ambient light was absent. To add to this I was screwing with the tank earlier in the day and had forgot to switch the timer back on so by the time I had made it to my tank it was 3 hours past when it normally turns on. So no ambient light + 3 extra dark (very dark) hours.

When I turned the lights on I swear they were completely clear like ghosts it shocked the hell out of me. Within just TWO MINUTES they were back to a vibrant healthy orange. I even had some of my red cherry shrimp turn semi-transparent, and they are Sakura grade (solid red).

Amazed.
 
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