Parrot fish issue,,,help

[vinnstar]

All,
About 6 months ago I placed 7 red parrots in my tank and every couple of weeks i notice that they all start to lose their color... but once i either do a water change or feed .... the color comes back... why is this.. ? Is this a water problem? My levels are fine... Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

 

[mayahsun]

Do you have any photos of the color difference? are they going totally pale or just a lighter shade of red?

my guess with the info I have is that it is stress related, they were red when you bought them (stress from being in a lfs), they are red after water changes(some fish are frightened when you do maintenence), feeding may be either overly exciting or they may stress on the competition for food.

 

[Gothyc_samurai]

as far as i can tell and share from my exp from keeping these the more dominant a parrot is, the paler it goes, or at least mine did, the most dominant was a peachy colour and also grew the fastest. hope this helps

 

[vinnstar]

yea ill get a pic... last time this happened one actually died, and two others were on their way out... but did a huge water change and everyone went back to normal... like i said some days they are ok.. about 4 out of the 7 are turning pale white.. i know thats a stress symptom but there isnt much stress in this tank... ill get a pic... thanks all

 

[bryan.olsen]

how big is your tank? do you have any other tankmates?

 

[BadDogsPa]

Maby some are scared of a few dominant ones.When you go into the tank to do cleaning it ,or feeding it breaks up the fights so there not intimidated for awile.