My Flamingo Losing its color!!!

[Mello]

My Flamingo slowly losses its color red. Now its Pale White. I dont know what happened. He eats everything I feed him. What should I do?

[Eddie]

Feed him heavily with red enhancing food. I use Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef and even my HECKEL has turned RED. Additionally, I have yet to see a flake with more protein content:D


Eddie

[Mello]

Ok I will try that. Its just weird that it lost it Red Color. One more thing I notice when the light is off the red comes back but when I turn it on it starts to fade. Is it a lighting issue also?

[Eddie]

Light, water, stress or no stress...it can be a number of things. My red fish turns completely white or pale after a WC. When he is fighting with others his red is really out. So I see it as a mood thing but red enhancing food will bring his red out. ;)

Eddie

[bs6749]

It could also be that your fish is showing signs of being ill. Do the feces look normal?

[kaceyo]

It could also be that your fish is showing signs of being ill. Do the feces look normal?

I'm thinking the same thing. If your fish turns red when lights are out then it has the pigment available to show red color. When lights are off the stress is reduced and it show's it's full color, but when stress is increased, in this case by turning lights on, the color fades.
Watch for other symptoms or reasons for stress.

Kacey

[Eddie]

I'm thinking the same thing. If your fish turns red when lights are out then it has the pigment available to show red color. When lights are off the stress is reduced and it show's it's full color, but when stress is increased, in this case by turning lights on, the color fades.
Watch for other symptoms or reasons for stress.

Kacey

Could be, also could be the amount of light. I'm wondering how strong the lights are on the tank? :confused:

Eddie

[bs6749]

One of my PB's would not show any signs of peppering when stressed and with the lights on. The same fish showed normal peppering with the lights off and when it was healthy. It became thin and emaciated two weeks after I noticed it not showing the peppering. I treated for internal flagellated because the feces was white and stringy. The fish eventually had normal colored feces but just would not gain weight and was eventually put down. Watch your fish closely to get a better idea of what the problem may be.

[ShinShin]

A red fish losing color would be a red flag to me that it may have an internal parasite of some sort. Are the fecal droppings normal? Got a microscope to check fecal samples? What are you feeding your fish? Water parameters like temp, pH, ammonia, nitrites? Water change regime?

Mat

[Mello]

It started to get his color back. Feces are normal. Should I try to treat with Prazi pro?

[Eddie]

It started to get his color back. Feces are normal. Should I try to treat with Prazi pro?

Why treat if you don't know what you are treating for? Sometimes it does more harm than good. JMO

Eddie

[kaceyo]

I agree with Eddie. There is no reason to think it has something that Prazi would help. Without a microscope as Mat suggested, all you can do is keep an eye on it and watch for symptoms or behaviors that might shed light on the situation.

Kacey

[ShinShin]

PraziPro will only help you out if you have tapeworms or gill flukes. I see nothing here to suspect either. Contrary to what many think or believe, tapeworms will only exist in an otherwise healthy discus. A discus with tapeworms appear perfectly normal and healthy. It simply eats alot and doesn't grow much. On occasion, a discus may be so otherwise healthy that they have a tremendous amount of worms present, causing an abdominal bulge. This could create huge problems for the fish.

A tapeworm needs a healthy host because it draws 100% of its nourisment from this host. If the host is weakened by another parasite or pathogen, the tapeworm suffers and may actually leave the host entirely because it will not survive in the sick discus.

Tapeworms are a parasite, meaning they draw all their benifits for living from the host, at the expense of the host.

Mat

[Mello]

Thanks I will observe him for now.