Help_my Dat is Brown, will he ever colour up again??

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Ade

Ade

Piranha
MFK Member
Jun 7, 2008
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Hello T1,
I am new to this forum and am amazed at the number of posts regarding datnoids, a personnal favourite of mine. You seem to be very knowledagble re: the datnoid, so what's your best advice re: stabilising IT's colours. I have a 100G tank, with 3 IT's: a 10", 7" and 6". Also 2 Cambeli: both 4". Other oddballs in tank a BJdempsey 6" and a BlackGKnife 12", and Mono 8" tall.
The 10" IT has been dark brown for 2 years now. Suddenly he lost his beautifiul colours. The 7" not as unstable but still dark, but the 6" has amaxing stipes and is always stable. If I could get my 10" IT to colour up like ny smaller one, I would be incredibably happy!!!
Water quality is not bad at all i.e nitrates 30- 40. and temp 26C. No real bullying in tank. I have tried black background, no back ground and only yesterday, I put Blue background in tank. This is my last effort at trying to stimulate the IT's colours. I am out of ideas.
I commend your Dats shown in your photoes, truely amazing. What advice can you give me? Is the colour just down to luck and genetics?


Note: the dats are all healthy, eating and swimming freely. All signs of good health. The cambellis have always been stable!

Hope you can advise. Thanks.
 
Welcome to the forums ;)

Is this question directed just at T1? Or can everyone join in?
If it is just for T1, you can use the PM function to reach him directly in case he doesn't see this thread. Again, welcome ;)
 
that was for anyone answer. sorry about that.. now I know what PM funstion is for?!
 
Hi

sorry if my spelling is abit bad but i am just a simple man so i will try as hard as i to put this in the best english i can :D

if it IT or NTT you have they sometimes are really hard to get to color up

if you have driftwood in the tank or hiding places what i have found is they seam to try to blend into their surroundings

with no driftwood or decor they may just lay on their sides in a corner

what i have found that works is to keep the temp high around 86

once they get brave and free swim more they should color back up this can take ages with IT or NTT

if the tiger was looking nice when you got it chances are it will look nice again

i have seen lots of tigers that were totally black in the shop but colored up nice as soon as they were put in the bag to bring them home

if you have more than one also one may be nice all the time but the others just look washed out or black

i have had loads of NTT that looked great in the shop but could never get them nice in my tank i had just about given up with NTT/thin bars until i got the one i have now

i know it can be very depressing you see all the nice color tigers on hear or other websites and yours dont look nothing like that

im sorry to say some tigers never color up
 
Thanks Ti for the info.

The main thing is the fish are healthy/fat, eating and they always come out to see me.

good health to your fishees!!
 
i has driftwood before and all of my tigers were black i took it out and within 3 weeks they all looked nice :D

the driftwood may make the water to soft
 
I agree with both your comments. I have plenty of hiding places, bog wood, pots and blue background. Both cambelis very stable. My 2 IT's very stable. But the 2 big IT's brown, fairly unstable colours but not totally black. Best to try and be patient. I'll leave everything as it is for say 3 weeks, then maybe I'll try removing all the bogwood, and see what happens.

CHeers guys. I'll post any chnages that may occur with my tigers.
 
2 cambelis (4 inch) _is it likely one will eventually kill the other one?
 
They will definitely fight more and more as they get larger. If you have a 2nd tank I would think about seperating them.
 
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