Seems there's a bunch of folks here keeping the fish so hopefully someone can help me with this problem. I bought a group of 6 p polleni a few months ago at about an inch to an inch and a half in size. A week or two after I got them the larger ones started to display the regular paratilapia colouring, dark black with the pearlescent spots. At the time they were in a 35 gal along with 5 blue dolphins from the same breeder. The fish started to outgrow the tank so I moved them into a 75 gal and ever since then, probably 2 months ago now, the fish have been the light brownish colour they were when I got them as fry. The largest member of the group is probably about the length of a credit card from head to tail. He used to be gorgeous but now he's pretty dull.
I recently moved the blue dolphins out to a 110 gal because a bunch of them decided to gang up on the second largest p polleni and almost killed the poor thing. Has almost no fins left but it's recovering. Right after it was attacked though it had the nicer colouring on it. I know that was a result of stress since some fish darken when stressed out but I shouldn't take that to mean that these guys only show their colours when they're unhappy? I feed them NLS cichlid pellets and occaisionally culls from smaller fish that I breed as well as occaisional frozen beefheart mix, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp. I have the 6 of them alone in the 75 gal currently, they range in size from the one I mentioned to a small one that is probably 2 inches now. None of them are showing their colours properly.
The group of 4 small P Bleekeri I have in a 20 gal are showing better colours than these guys and they're still tiny.
Any idea why they might be discoloured and what I can do to bring out their best?
I recently moved the blue dolphins out to a 110 gal because a bunch of them decided to gang up on the second largest p polleni and almost killed the poor thing. Has almost no fins left but it's recovering. Right after it was attacked though it had the nicer colouring on it. I know that was a result of stress since some fish darken when stressed out but I shouldn't take that to mean that these guys only show their colours when they're unhappy? I feed them NLS cichlid pellets and occaisionally culls from smaller fish that I breed as well as occaisional frozen beefheart mix, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp. I have the 6 of them alone in the 75 gal currently, they range in size from the one I mentioned to a small one that is probably 2 inches now. None of them are showing their colours properly.
The group of 4 small P Bleekeri I have in a 20 gal are showing better colours than these guys and they're still tiny.
Any idea why they might be discoloured and what I can do to bring out their best?
