Flowerhorn Color is gone

[robfishies]

Why did my flowerhorn turn like this? At first i thought it was hexa so i immediately treated his food and even did the syringe method. His poop was white only one time. After that it’s been brown ever since for some reason. He eats but he’s picky with eating only the carnivore sticks and raw shrimp. Any ideas ? Been like this for 4-5 days. Parameters are perfect. He’s in a tank with blood parrots and he’s the boss

 

[HybridFinatic]

Looks like your flowerhorn has the fader gene from it's amphilophus ancestry. Did it gradually attain this color or did it happen overnight?

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Magnus_Bane . Tank size? Parameters?

 

[HybridFinatic]

Also how long ago was the first pic. He looks slightly bloated probably from overfeeding. His diet seems to be too high protein and you should easily be able to get him too a better diet after fasting for a few days. shrimp can be fed as a treat. though sparingly no more than 1 max 2 times a week. I recommend switching the staple pellet to a standard hikari cichlid pellet or other brands such as northfin, omega one, or New Life Spectrum. Other than that your fish is fine. The coloration fading is completely unrelated to health so other than too high protein diet and a little overfeeding he looks fine.

 

[robfishies]

Also how long ago was the first pic. He looks slightly bloated probably from overfeeding. His diet seems to be too high protein and you should easily be able to get him too a better diet after fasting for a few days. shrimp can be fed as a treat. though sparingly no more than 1 max 2 times a week. I recommend switching the staple pellet to a standard hikari cichlid pellet or other brands such as northfin, omega one, or New Life Spectrum. Other than that your fish is fine. The coloration fading is completely unrelated to health so other than too high protein diet and a little overfeeding he looks fine.

Thanks. Water parameters are 0,0,15 and it’s a 75 gallon. It gradually happened in 4 days. Got paler and paler

 

[robfishies]

Also how long ago was the first pic. He looks slightly bloated probably from overfeeding. His diet seems to be too high protein and you should easily be able to get him too a better diet after fasting for a few days. shrimp can be fed as a treat. though sparingly no more than 1 max 2 times a week. I recommend switching the staple pellet to a standard hikari cichlid pellet or other brands such as northfin, omega one, or New Life Spectrum. Other than that your fish is fine. The coloration fading is completely unrelated to health so other than too high protein diet and a little overfeeding he looks fine.

What color should i expect him to be? Pretty exciting all though i did like his old coloring very much.

 

[robfishies]

Why did my flowerhorn turn like this? At first i thought it was hexa so i immediately treated his food and even did the syringe method. His poop was white only one time. After that it’s been brown ever since for some reason. He eats but he’s picky with eating only the carnivore sticks and raw shrimp. Any ideas ? Been like this for 4-5 days. Parameters are perfect. He’s in a tank with blood parrots and he’s the bossView attachment 1448764

First pic was when i noticed around 4 days ago. Second was 30 hours ago. And today is the one i sent

 

[Magnus_Bane]

View attachment 1448801View attachment 1448802First pic was when i noticed around 4 days ago. Second was 30 hours ago. And today is the one i sent

Yeah your guy just seems like a lil bit of a late bloomer. Most FH's tend to fade once they reach around 1-2in but some can wait till much much later to fade, even seen some that waited till they were fully grown before they started to fade.

As for color it's anybody's guess with a fader. Granted with how yours is going I would say it may turn out almost completely pink like my female red dragon. Also he has just started to fade from the looks of it so he may take a bit of time to fully color up again. This is my fader female btw, yours may end up somewhat like mine did.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Yeah your guy just seems like a lil bit of a late bloomer. Most FH's tend to fade once they reach around 1-2in but some can wait till much much later to fade, even seen some that waited till they were fully grown before they started to fade.

As for color it's anybody's guess with a fader. Granted with how yours is going I would say it may turn out almost completely pink like my female red dragon. Also he has just started to fade from the looks of it so he may take a bit of time to fully color up again. This is my fader female btw, yours may end up somewhat like mine did.

View attachment 1448843

This. You'll just have to see and find out.

 

[robfishies]

• This. You'll just have to see and find out.

  Hopefully he’ll turn out good looking. I was fond of his old colors