What has my green terror turned black?

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MissFee

Feeder Fish
Oct 14, 2010
1
0
0
Ireland
i have a 300litre tank it was giving to me as a gift i am completely new to this and im in way over my head..
In my tank i have 3 green terrors, 2 silver dollars, 2 red tail sharks, a sucker, a baby oscar and a baby lobster... i think i have too many fish although they all seem to be very happy and they dont fight with eachother each fish sticks to their own kind but over the past couple of weeks one of my greens terrors spent a lot of time inside an ornament skull he's coming out a lot more now but he has turned jet black and his fins seem very spikey he doesnt look like my other 2 anymore he has changed.. is it even a male he could be female i dont know!!

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sorry about the fuzzy pic but they hate the camera.. the one swimming into the eye is one of my normal green terrors and has always looked like this so has one other..

13102010089.jpg


but as you can see in this the 3rd fella has turned jet black, is bigger and his fins are more spikey..

13102010081.jpg


i dont have a clue if im doing something wrong could someone please let me know!!
 
1st step, test your water. More than likely, he's stressed from being bullied by the other two.
 
Uhm...they look the same to me.

Either way though, fish change color based on their environment & even their mood. I don't know why just one of your GT's would change, maybe somebody else can chime in. All I can tell you is that I wouldn't be worried about it if I were you.
 
Test the water, if you do not have a freshwater master test kit I would invest in one.

lg-110706-43193-test-kit.jpg


They usually go for about 20.00

in the mean time you can take a tupperware full of water from your aquarium to the local fish store (LFS) and they will most likely test it for you.

If you did not cycle your aquarium before putting fish in, you may be mid-cycle. Read this article

Idealy, you want your test results to be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and <20 Nitrates.

Cichlids will change color under different conditions, agression, stress and spawning being the most common.
 
It's stressed from somthing, either it's being harassed by another fish or somthing in the environment is bothering it. I agree with testing the water. If you don't have a test kit do a 50% water change it couldn't hurt. You should be doing 50% weekly water changes anyway if your not already. What size are they? Have they breed in the skull or hiding from somthing? What type of filtration is on the tank? IMO the tank is over stocked it's about 78 galllons and is not enough for all those fish once they start getting bigger.
 
MissFee;4550064; said:
i have a 300litre tank it was giving to me as a gift i am completely new to this and im in way over my head..
In my tank i have 3 green terrors, 2 silver dollars, 2 red tail sharks, a sucker, a baby oscar and a baby lobster... i think i have too many fish although they all seem to be very happy and they dont fight with eachother each fish sticks to their own kind but over the past couple of weeks one of my greens terrors spent a lot of time inside an ornament skull he's coming out a lot more now but he has turned jet black and his fins seem very spikey he doesnt look like my other 2 anymore he has changed.. is it even a male he could be female i dont know!!
Click to expand...

Your first step before anything else should be to thin down your stock in quite a big way tomorrow and get some fish back to the shop, offering them for free if you have to. No water changes and no tests. Just make the decisions on what you want to keep or the fish WILL decide for you. Even if water quality is an issue, you are not going to get it resolved until you get your stock under control for your sized tank.

A 300 litre tank is only 79 US gallons. Most people recommend no less than a 75 for either one oscar (can hit 14"+) or one male green terror (can hit 12" but reportedly more).
Im going to hazard a guess and say that your tank is probably a juwel rio 300l tank @ 48 x 20 x 25" or dimensions close to that if another common brand.
If I am correct then at 4ft long you can only really accommodate 1 monster (max 12-14" at a push) or 2 medium cichlids (up to 10" each).

The lobster will have to go as it wont be long before it is taking bits off the sleeping fish, it is what they do. Even if it doesn't get too bad the chances of it surviving large oscars or GT's for long is unlikely.

2 RTB sharks in the same tank is a big no as they despise their own kind. They also harrass anything that remotely looks a similar shape or is just there in the same area of water, more than likely to the death.

Silver dollars should be ok depending how many cichlids your keeping as they are quite a large bodied fish when mature. I don't know about numbers though but I've read they need a shoal which requires a minimum of a 125 gallon (6ft) tank.

More than 1 green terror is bad news unless it is for breeding purposes to find a pair. Contrary to your statement your GT's are not happy, that is why they fight and one is black. The black one is extremely stressed. The other two are probably stressing it as they are probably a pair now and they will be attacking the loner. The other fish will be next on the pairs hit list.

Depending on what your "sucker" is it may have to go too. Again it is likely to be a common pleco, sailfin pleco, or a chinese algae eater. All are terrible, the CAE because of their aggression and tendancy to latch onto high bodied fish even when well fed. the other two because of their size and the amount of waste they produce can make a lot of filters struggle particularly newly established ones.
 
do a water change. siphon gravel. Change around decor. Sell or give away two of the the three Green Terrors. I also notice in the first pic a Jack Dempsey, keep him or the one Green Terror. I think you need to down size your tank. Better filtration maybe.
 
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