Texas face turned black

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Turion2112

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 17, 2009
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New Jersey, U.S.
My Texas Cichlids face turned black a few days ago and now only 1 side of his face is black. Just did a total cleaning of the tank the ph is real low I need to bring it back up. Question is: does the texas cichlid do this as it gets older. I have had this one almost 10 months and he was a baby when I got him. He shows no sign of stress swims perfect but he was staying in his cave for the past few days. His face turned black when I shut the tanks lights off and left them of for the past few days. before i did that I did not notice the black face.I noticed him get dark before when the lights were left off but not like now...
 
can you get a picture? cichlids tend to change color a lot with their emotions and at night when they are sleeping, also is there a female in with him or another fish he is acting like mating with? breeding colors for carpintis are black on the lower half and white above (and cyanos i think also get a similar color but not sure)
 
Does it look something similar to this....

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327389 or http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184453

However, this was what was pointed out in the pbass thread by Scatocephalus and Balton also highlighted on his thread.

Scatocephalus;2350933; said:
Something has damaged the fish's ability to control the chromataphores used to adjust color and pigment based on mood. Most likely a bacterial infection. The chromataphores on this side of the fish's face have defaulted to the darkest "setting" possible.

Just like humans, specific parts of the body are seperated and controlled by specific parts of the brain. That's why you are seeing a very specific line and area affected by the malady. It is NOT genetic. If it were genetic the fish would have been born this way.

I've seen this in a variety of fish over the years and it is always a specific quadrant of the fish's body that is affected. It is always very well delineated and typically affects the face. It will never get better and from now on the fish's face wil be black on that side.

As far as I know there is no known catalyst nor no known treatment.

And despite the posts stating that it is cool or neat, it is a biological failure due to unknown reasons. Not something that I would be excited about.
Click to expand...

interesting stuff...post some pics
 
Yes the Flowerhorn is what my Texas looks like. I turned the lights off a few days ago the face was not black and now it is. There is no other Cichlid in the tank only Blue Gouriams and he seams to be hanging with them.
 
What does a total cleaning of your tank involve exactly?? I hope you just mean water change and algae scrape.
 
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