RED???????!!!! -- Best Advice/Results/Tips/Experience?

[BLUECAN]

So here we have it. My SRT was bright blood red for the first several months. He now, is a lighter shaw of orange. His colours vary , , and he has nicely faded almost completely, of course I would prefer the blood red. I want to use this thread for us to help each other. Im sure there has been more before, but a fresh look/thread is always nice.

The Only difference in his set up when he was Blood red : Blue gravel, significant natural sunlight per day. Now: no blue gravel, less sunlight but still quite a bit, and at both points he had black backgrounds. I am feeding blood parrot pellets, NLS Flakes. Just picked up Hikari today, as well as NLS RED formula. Weill note progress (if any) here.



Any tips?

 

[RD.]

90+% genetics, with red texas the fish either has it, or it doesn't. BTW - I personally would never consider that grade of fish to be a SRT. But that's a whole nuther discussion.

 

[Prokenny]

Its a SBRT not a SRT, and totally depends on the genes, most of the good food already contains Astaxanthin so u cant do much more.

 

[duanes]

Try putting it back with the blue gravel and see if the dark color returns.
Most cichlids have the ability to darken or lighten based on habitat as a defense mechanism.
Looks to me like yours has taken on the color of the light colored gravel to some extent.

 

[RD.]

Agreed. Light/white substrate or background can result in lighter washed out colors in fish. I wouldn't expect a red texas to wash out in color that much from a substrate change when a black background is being used, but it's certainly possible that this is what happened.

How long have you had this fish, Blake? If it's only been a short period then there are of course some other possibilities as to why the recent loss of color. .

 

[calichai]

Nice texas. I'm curious to see if the gravel will have a effect on him as well. Still looks good imo, but I prefer the colors he had on the blue gravel.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[BLUECAN]

Thanks for tips guys... I will try him on blue substrate again , and keep you all posted , should be interesting.

 

[FishFreak95]

did you get him from overseas? Could be the hormones wearing off.

 

[BLUECAN]

Ya I wondered about the hormones thing..no clue... Perhaps RD wants to take him for a while and see if he can re-redden him?

 

[RD.]

That's why I previously asked this:

How long have you had this fish, Blake? If it's only been a short period then there are of course some other possibilities as to why the recent loss of color.

How long has he been in country?