Flowerhorn Color is gone

[robfishies]

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.

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Well i could definitely rule out stress because his kok got bigger lol. How long does the fading process take? He lost majority if not all his pearls and colors

 

[robfishies]

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Well i could definitely rule out stress because his kok got bigger lol. How long does the fading process take? He lost majority if not all his pearls and colors

 

[Ruturaj]

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

Isn't fading affect just black pigments (melanophores) and not pearls (iridophores)?

I have seen both cases. I am not sure loosing pearls is fading as well, may be it's something else. But not something fish come backs from.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Isn't fading affect just black pigments (melanophores) and not pearls (iridophores)?

I have seen both cases. I am not sure loosing pearls is fading as well, may be it's something else. But not something fish come backs from.

Usually that's the case but I wouldn't know what else to call this. It's like this flowerhorn became leucistic.

 

[Ruturaj]

Usually that's the case but I wouldn't know what else to call this. It's like this flowerhorn became leucistic.

Yes, exactly. I have seen it before though. Happened to Ozzie73 's fish.

Fading genes comes from midas and they don't have pearls, so we can't be sure that there are not multiple types of fadiy.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

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Almost kind of looks like he's becoming a Thai silk. Definitely an interesting fader to say the least. Wonder how he'll turn out once done. Btw each fader will be different from one another in how long the transformation takes. My fader female didn't stop changing colors for almost an entire year before she finally settled on a look she liked lol. Yours seems to be doing his pretty fast tho so it may only end up taking a few months before he's finally done changing.

 

[robfishies]

Almost kind of looks like he's becoming a Thai silk. Definitely an interesting fader to say the least. Wonder how he'll turn out once done. Btw each fader will be different from one another in how long the transformation takes. My fader female didn't stop changing colors for almost an entire year before she finally settled on a look she liked lol. Yours seems to be doing his pretty fast tho so it may only end up taking a few months before he's finally done changing.

Thanks i’ll keep updating this thread if anything drastic happens.

 

[Ozzie73]

It's scary when they're big and start fading at first...lol. A quick trip from 'now what' to 'wow'. His pearls are still there so that's a plus. Good chance he'll color up real nice. ?

 

[Ruturaj]

It's scary when they're big and start fading at first...lol. A quick trip from 'now what' to 'wow'. His pearls are still there so that's a plus. Good chance he'll color up real nice. ?

I have been wondering about that, fish are only supposed to loose melanin based pigments (melanophores) and pearls are based on guanine (iridophores). Your fish still has me intrigued. Only thing I found related to loss of pearls was oxidative stress.

 

[robfishies]

I have been wondering about that, fish are only supposed to loose melanin based pigments (melanophores) and pearls are based on guanine (iridophores). Your fish still has me intrigued. Only thing I found related to loss of pearls was oxidative stress.

Noticed orange is starting to come in on his face and fin. His pearls are becoming more visible