a question about my Jag....

[thesquishy]

Hi all, Ive had my Jaguar Cichlid for about 2 months, he's about 4.5-5" now and living in a 150gal tank with some JD's and GT's...they all seem to get along fine.
My question is that he is sssooooo super dark, like almost black. All the pictures Ive seen and what Ive read is that they are supost to be gold with black markings...Is my fishy sick or will this go away with time and its just a faze he's going though?

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[professa19]

well squishy...it could be just the fishes genetics that it has this black color...

however, there are some thing you can do to help this, a easy thing to do is to bump up the temperature of your tank a few degrees, that will help.

secondly, go out and buy some good food, perhaps some krill, as this will make your fish's color look better...good luck with your jag

 

[---XR---]

it's just in juvinile coloration, when they mature past 5-6" they will get adult coloration and you'll see the pronounced markings.

 

[D-Train]

Or else it's stress colouration.

 

[RedH2O]

Ya my jag will turn a darker coloration if he is being chased. At 4-5" that fish is well passed due for the color change. I'd probley sit a distance a way from the tank and observe and see if he is being chased. Sometimes fish will lay off on other fish when you come near the tank in hopes of food. Id say try that and if all looks well check the water parameters, temperature like Pro said will help also.

I feed my jag a variety of things including krill, hikari gold carnovore pellets(tried them he just spits them out.) brine shrimp(makes a mess), bloodworms and cichlid delight.
At about 2.5 inches he already had his color. I went to the LFS at saw a 20gal tank jammed packed with jags at about 2.5" and the biggest at 3.5" the larger one had markings like mine while the others were almost black.

Also they love to eat live things, try crickets they love them and its quite fun to watch!

 

[thesquishy]

Ya my jag will turn a darker coloration if he is being chased. At 4-5" that fish is well passed due for the color change. I'd probley sit a distance a way from the tank and observe and see if he is being chased. Sometimes fish will lay off on other fish when you come near the tank in hopes of food. Id say try that and if all looks well check the water parameters, temperature like Pro said will help also.

I feed my jag a variety of things including krill, hikari gold carnovore pellets(tried them he just spits them out.) brine shrimp(makes a mess), bloodworms and cichlid delight.
At about 2.5 inches he already had his color. I went to the LFS at saw a 20gal tank jammed packed with jags at about 2.5" and the biggest at 3.5" the larger one had markings like mine while the others were almost black.

Also they love to eat live things, try crickets they love them and its quite fun to watch!

Lucky for me my tank is in my bedroom and I stair at it all night He hardly ever gets chased around or bullied. If anything if he doesnt like them near him he gets in defensive mode and they back off lol. I feed my fishys Hikari Gold, Tetra Cichild Sticks and beefheart/bloodworms. Hopefully Im thinking this is just a faze and he's still trying to figure out if he wants to dominate them all or not lol

But thanks everyone, I just wanted someone elses thoughts.

 

[spaulding]

more than likely it will grow out of it. my jag stayed pretty dark until around the 6" mark. now he's looking pretty typical. i also had a female that never got quite as light. she was just a bit darker.