Hey all,
I'm fairly new to the forum, but I've had my 3 RB's for almost a year now without incident. Recently, my eldest' head just turned much darker than the rest of his body. He literally looks like he was dipped in vat of black ink all the way to the ends of his gills in a perfectly straight line. I've been trying to do some research on this matter and have come up with nothing. One thing that I was able to find was that it could be genetics? I wouldn't have worried if he didn't begin to act strangely. He hasn't left the same spot in my tank for a few days. I'm not sure if he's eating or not, but other than just sitting there he's absolutely fine. He isn't laboring to pass water over his gills or anything but I normally see him swimming around with the others and he's not doing that anymore.
For starters, I have a 55 gallon tank. The water parameters are: 20ppm Nitrate. 0 ppm Nitrite. 7.5ph. Carbonate Hardness 240ppm. General hardness 15ppm. It is somewhat of a planted aquarium. I have a bubbler and power head to keep the water moving and oxygenated. In addition to the 3 RB's there is about 20-30 guppies living in the tank that I initially got as feeders, but instead became tankmates. They've bread from the 5 I initially bought almost a year ago. I also have a slew of snails living in the tank as well. The RB's current diet is strictly freeze dried krill and frozen scallops. They've never been fed goldfish and haven't eaten on of the guppies I put in. I do 25-35% water changes every 7-14 days.
Hope you guys can help,
B
I'm fairly new to the forum, but I've had my 3 RB's for almost a year now without incident. Recently, my eldest' head just turned much darker than the rest of his body. He literally looks like he was dipped in vat of black ink all the way to the ends of his gills in a perfectly straight line. I've been trying to do some research on this matter and have come up with nothing. One thing that I was able to find was that it could be genetics? I wouldn't have worried if he didn't begin to act strangely. He hasn't left the same spot in my tank for a few days. I'm not sure if he's eating or not, but other than just sitting there he's absolutely fine. He isn't laboring to pass water over his gills or anything but I normally see him swimming around with the others and he's not doing that anymore.
For starters, I have a 55 gallon tank. The water parameters are: 20ppm Nitrate. 0 ppm Nitrite. 7.5ph. Carbonate Hardness 240ppm. General hardness 15ppm. It is somewhat of a planted aquarium. I have a bubbler and power head to keep the water moving and oxygenated. In addition to the 3 RB's there is about 20-30 guppies living in the tank that I initially got as feeders, but instead became tankmates. They've bread from the 5 I initially bought almost a year ago. I also have a slew of snails living in the tank as well. The RB's current diet is strictly freeze dried krill and frozen scallops. They've never been fed goldfish and haven't eaten on of the guppies I put in. I do 25-35% water changes every 7-14 days.
Hope you guys can help,
B
![IMG_1394[1].JPG](https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/data/attachments/610/610151-21fe02573bcef37bff52bb4252c94105.jpg?hash=If4CVzvO83 "IMG_1394[1].JPG")
