why does my midas have great colours on water change day only?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Anyway back on topic, your saying the nitrate levels could be to blame... I will do another test Saturday when the lev we la have settled. .. the cold water is an interesting idea tho, I suspected the heat.

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LOL, no mass hysteria.
but it's your bad for asking "why does my midas have great colours on water change day only?"
;-)
ok, this is the deal. when nitrates are kept low, there isn't real change in fish colors after a water change. more like an increase in sparkle.
YOU said your midas colors only looks good ON water change day- sorry, but that means your levels are high enough that they are only being diluted so they are already negatively 'affecting' his colors on the 2nd & 3rd days, etc.
MY fish now look no diff on 1st day. 2nd day more sparkle.. spawns are triggered closer following changes.
HOWEVER, back when I didn't know/believe these facts (plz see the nitrate study) then I would see more drastic difference.

I'm not perfect on water care, as sometimes Life happens. so I can honestly say that I know what's going on there in your fish.by experience!
I'd love to find a guy to set me up with an auto change system ;-)

PS: central americans also need & use-up more minerals. which are consumed via water between changes. so your ph/kh/gh is worth factoring in also. (what is that out of tap?)
water is not only one thing.
 
Is it anything to do with the tempreture drop? My fish went crazy when i increased my tank by 2* and started breeding i had midas, oscars & jack dempsey so it was havoc


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Fluctuating temperatures will definitely affect them. A slight, sudden drop in temperature (and also sometimes adding heavily oxygenated water) will usually induce spawning. I notice this also happens a lot with my tanks in the summer when the barometric pressure drops before a thunderstorm. All my fish end up spawning like crazy. Along with these behaviors you see increased activity, intensified color, more fighting, etc.
 
justarn,
It could be tested to see whether or not the temp drop & oxygenation alone duplicates your fish's color improvement.
At 20-30ppm nitrates (since you probably do water changes when higher than that), siphon out the same amount of tank water you normally change into Lg buckets, let it cool down to your tap temp, oxygenate it somehow with mega bubblers just before re-adding that water for a subsequent water "change".
I think the fish would not show equal improvement.
 
This is a great video that gives some very good reasons to do cold water changes.
Click to expand...

I didn't watch the video, but I have read his explanation here on MFK in the past. It made absolutely no sense in the past, and I'm guessing it makes no better sense in his youtube infomercial.

Have to agree with Ryan and Grannie on nitrates, lower is always better, my ideal target range has always been 10 as a max. Less stress on the fish, less problems .......
 
Why would you say a cold water change makes no sense?
Whether you believe the idea of heavy metals coming from the hot water tank or not is up to you, but this is testable. You cannot argue with the fact that temperatures do affect fish and have been proven to elicit spawning.
Nitrates are another topic all together and I to agree that the lower they are the better.
 
Because the last time Shawn went off about cold water changes, it had to do with so called heavy metals from his hot water tank causing some mystery illness in some of his fish. This is also the same person that once stated that water conditioners such as Prime etc are a waste of money, and not neccessary unless one performs 50+% water changes. Yeah, okay ......

Many older homes in North America have lead supply lines to the house, and/or lead solder used in many (pre-1987) homes. And many natural bodies of water will contain elements such as iron, lead, copper, aluminum, arsenic, etc. As long as the numbers are in the low ppm, or for some elements the low ppb, which is usually the case, these elements are not going to cause any issues with the vast majority of tropical fish.

My tap water originates in the headwaters of the Rocky Mountains, and contains all of the elements listed above. Never once have I had any issues with HITH, or any other type of autoimmune disease. Best course of action is to run your taps for several minutes before filling your tank, same as they advise with drinking water. Flush the lines to remove or at least greatly reduce any potential build up of metals etc in your water line. If one has a problem with an older hot water tank, that can be resolved by replacing the hot water tank. At lower levels some of these elements can also be removed by using a water conditioner such as Prime. According to Dr. Greg Morin, the President/CEO of Seachem, Prime will precipitate many of these metals, such as lead, zinc, mercury, copper etc.


Now if one is talking about using "cooler" water in an attempt to trigger spawning activity, that's certainly understandable, and yes it can work, but I would never suggest that everyone not use their hot water supply due to potential toxicty issues. My cold water line right now is sitting at approx 50F, I'm guessing the sudden shock of a large water change would do a lot more than just trigger spawning activity in some of my fish. Not all of us here on MFK live in tropical locations such as NC. :)
 
The part of the question that I as originally responding to was on the appearance of the fish after a cold water change and why they appeared to be brighter and more vibrant. I'm not suggesting that everyone not use their hot water to do water changes, and water coming from the ground at a deep enough depth is the same temperature year round.

The mountains of NC are far from tropical. ;)

I'm not trying to persuade anyone to change what works for them. I believe there are some benefits to doing cold water changes, in my experience, yours may be different.
 
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