sunlight and pepper

[rayw]

Hi all,

I've read in the past, that lots of sunlight can reduce the amount of pepper on a PB. Has anyone else read/heard/seen anything like this?

Just yesterday, I bought a couple white butterflies. Just 2 since I'm totally out of space. I placed them into a 20 gallon QT tanks and they appeared pretty happy. They we eating FBW within a couple hours. Everything seemed great.

Today, since the weather was really nice, I decided to wash my car. With the garage door opened, I had direct sun into my QT tank.

Within an hour so so, one of the WB totally peppered up. Damn...:mad:

It seemed to have gotten better, but this guy was almost totally clean before I brought him home.

I've heard poor water conditions can cause pepper, but this tank was just set up last night, and a sponge filter that has been running for a few months was put in there, I also did 2 50% WC's on that tank today.

What can I do to stop this fish from peppering up? Is there anything I can do?:confused:

[KIWI13]

Ok first off your gonna have to give us some details about your tank..

Does your QT tank have a dark background ??

Is it a Bare Bottom tank ??

Do you have lighting on the tank ??

Normally you can undo peppering by placing a light background on the tank. I used white backgrounds on the PB's I had and increase the light on the tank to 13 hours a day. this kept the PB's almost clear, considering that PB's can pepper up fast.. It can also be stress related. Fish that stress can pepper up .

Give us some info on your tank water parameters too

Thanks

Jason

[rayw]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for that quick reply.

Here's are some details on my QT tank:

20 gallon
bare bottom
1 sponge filter

temp: 84
PH: 7.6

I didn't test ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, since this tank was just filled up 2 hours before picking up the fish. and 100% WC'ed today. Also, I don't think 2 juvi's in a 20 gallon would cause much ammonia with the cycled sponge.

The background is sorta light blue. It's the plastic backing from the styro insulation I bought from Lowes.

I have lighting on the tank, nothing special just cheap florecent kind.

I do have some white spray paint. I may end up painting it tomorrow.

Can stress related pepper clear up? Or am I SOL.

[KIWI13]

Hey there Ray,

I would not bother spraying the tank with the fish in it.. Blue is fine as a colour.. Its the black background thats not recommended.

They are there for 2 days, they can be stressed for up to 2 weeks. Don't worry to much about the peppering. It will clear up in time. Keep the water changes at 50% cause 100% can stress out new fish. Check your ammonia levels just to be sure anyways..

Keep the temp up in the 30°c range and add some aquarium salt to the tank to prevent any bacterial infectionf rom stress. use 1 tablespoon for every 10 gallons, in your case seeing as its a 20 gallon, thats 2 tablespoons fo aquarium salt.

Fluorescent lighting is fine, keep it on for a good 12 hours on the tank and feed em well...

Get em settled in first and when they feel fine , you will notice their peppering will disappear..

Keep us posted

Jason;)