10" frontosa on black sand/bad color

[Doradid]

I recently got a 10" male frontosa for $20. i dont know how well it was taken care of but he looks like crap. his color is awful and my 3year old says he an ugly black fish.

I've had frontosas on black sand and black background before and they didnt look this bad. i actually took a 4" front out and moved it to another tank and it's got great color. i keep all my fish around 7.0-7.5pH because i have mostly SA catfish in the tank. i usually keep the lights low because of the cats and i figured the fronts would like it being deep water fish but i just added a 4' strip light instead of the 30" dual t5 but nothing. he's active and eating well. been offering lots of krill, hikari cichlid pellets, bloodworms, red worms and tropical chrisps. i dont know what else to do. its been 8 days and he hasn't improved. i got to get this fish looking good. it was a suprise for my wife being she has always wanted a large front and she's upset that he's looking bad. help me because "if mama aint happy, no one's happy"!

 

[Ash]

I used to keep fronts on black sand it didnt dull the color out, they still had nice color, I think that it doesnt help in bringing the color out though. I think my fish look better on non-black sand (though i like it better with black sand). My fronts are very very small compared to yours but this was a picture of them with black sand.

On another note... if it was kept in bad conditions it could still be adjusting and slightly stressed. You may just need to give it some time and explain that to the wifey. If something in the tank was bothering it, that can be causing it to stress out too. If its eating thats good... just keep working at it, make sure nothing bothers it, feed it some good food and hopefully it gets better. Just keep an eye on its condition and eating habits. Is its fins nipped? Any sign of parasite? Maybe internal? It could be a number of things. As for the pH maybe its not happy with it or the water conditions? I keep my fronts at 8.0 pH roughly as thats what my tap is and Africans do like hard water.

 

[iamzrad]

Why'd you buy it in the first place? lol

 

[Doradid]

Why'd you buy it in the first place? lol

im starting to wonder if it was a mistake. i was estatic about finding such a large one for a great price but the damned thing brought ich with it.

 

[tr6]

Some frontosa are simply black or darker.

I have had burundi that are crisp sliver and black, and a few that are muddy in the same tank and related.
I have had the same thing with Moba, some with crisp blue and black, and some that are mostly black and even ones that had very faint black stripes but nearly solid blue.

Some fish are simply hypermelanistic, even though the siblings look "perfect".

Being dark CAN be an indication of sickness, bad mood, bad breeding, but it also CAN simply be a fish that happens to be happy, healthy but prefers to display dark.
A fish that prefers to be dark, may not change at all in different colored sand or lights.

you may just have to find one that displays the way you like.

If you pH is 7.0 that is way too low for a frontosa.
7.5 would be fine.

0.5 sounds like a tiny number, but pH is exponential.
The difference between 7.0 and 7.5 is 5x.
8.0 is 10x more alkaline than 7.0, and 9.0 is 20x more basic than 7.0.

Below 7.5 is really at the point where it can start taxing them.

 

[haynchinook334]

I say leave the tanks PH where its at. Don't want to put PH shock on all your fish to make one fish happy. Keep the PH steady. As for coloring that guy up, Give it time. Its a hit or miss (IMO) with fronts in coloring up. Could take a day or even weeks. I have gotten lucky with my last four. As for speeding up coloring, steady water changes help.

The first picture is my tank bottom painted black. The second, you can see the same one under/behind my bigger one. Pool filter sand could help OR you can add light color rocks in your tank. The Last picture is the smallest one, also with poll filter sand.

 

[wild bill]

What kind of front s are they I would guess burundi am I right or are they another breed we have 3 that look like yours 2 are light and 1 is really dark hard to see the stripes. We also just bought 12 mobas and added ours with them it is way darker than the new ones it has been in our display tank since it was small on white sand and bright lights the fish is healthy and bigger than the ones we just got that are a year older. So it sounds like the thought of some fish being more malmunistic could be very close to the best answer.

 

[Bluey]

Poor fonny. get him a tank with a pH over 8.
Get him in the right water and he should color up fine after a few weeks.
Maybe find him another home?

All these people who don't keep fish in the right pH , why do you even bother keeping fish?

 

[DustyBZoo]

Poor fonny. get him a tank with a pH over 8.
Get him in the right water and he should color up fine after a few weeks.
Maybe find him another home?

All these people who don't keep fish in the right pH , why do you even bother keeping fish?

One thing I'll always remember is something my boss told me when I worked at the fish store...'There's no such thing as can't'.
I've seen some strange things... SA and africans together, gold fish and oscars, so on and so on....

Just because a particular fish likes a certain pH, doesn't mean that it can't tolerate another.

I do think that 7 or even 7.5 is too low for a fish that comes from 9.0, however IMO it would be a worse idea to mess around or change the pH when you have a stressed or sick fish.

 

[toddhgr]

One thing I'll always remember is something my boss told me when I worked at the fish store...'There's no such thing as can't'.
I've seen some strange things... SA and africans together, gold fish and oscars, so on and so on....

Just because a particular fish likes a certain pH, doesn't mean that it can't tolerate another.

I do think that 7 or even 7.5 is too low for a fish that comes from 9.0, however IMO it would be a worse idea to mess around or change the pH when you have a stressed or sick fish.

This is line one of my biggest pet peaves. There is a big difference between survive and thrive! Just because you LIKE seeing the light of day and your freedom, doesn't mean you can't TOLERATE a pitch black 4X4 cell. Look I'm not one of those nutso animal rights idiots who say were all evil for keeping fish. I'm just trying to say that if there is somthing small we can do to make the lives of our pets much better we should do it. Somthing small like keeping their water, tankmates, and tank space somewhat matching what they are naturally evolved to live with.