Worrying blackness. please help.

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tokyogasmask

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 1, 2009
2,285
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Japan
Hi,
I am a little concerned for my male flowerhorn.
He is at around 2.5-3" in size, is in a 55gal seperated tank with a female.
He has been in with her all week and was very strong colored.
The last 2 days, his color has gone almost completely black. Not stress bars but just very very dark (like what my female went before she layed eggs.

He seems fine, does not seem at all stressed, eating well.
Water parameters are spot on and always are. And i do my regular twice weekly water change as normal.
Female is gorgeous lookng still, no color change.

My friend says it could be stress, and another friend says it could be a "spawning color?". Do males change color during this stage?

Any ideas?


Here is a pic before from when I first got him. (this pic he has been in the tank 10 min.)
img6895r.jpg



Here he is now:
img6988l.jpg



Could anyone please confirm it as a male?
I was sold as a male, it has a small noticable hump, very rectangular body.
I have tried venting, I couldn't really make out a U or a V. was too small.
But i did the gentle belly squeeze, and some liquid did come out. (I was told this means a male)


Thanks in advance.
 
You background looks a little dark imo... Try a colorful bg and see if this helps... How long have you had this fish? Have you dewormed him yet? What is the color of your gravel? Most fh stress out with dark colored bg an gravel...
 
i was also thinking it might simply just be the dark colored arrangement of the tank. Hey Beantickler, what did you mean by dewormed?
 
Mikeeyy;3636508; said:
i was also thinking it might simply just be the dark colored arrangement of the tank. Hey Beantickler, what did you mean by dewormed?
Click to expand...


FH are prone to internal worms. Every 6-8 months you should deworm your FH. I use Fenbendazole in powder form for felines. You can get it from your local vet office. Its cheap and does the job well.
 
tokyogasmask;3636661; said:
I haven't yet de-wormed.
How did you go about using Cat de-worming powder?
Is it safe?

How did you do it?
Click to expand...
The way I do it is mix the powder with some water to make a thick liquid with it. Soak the pellets or whatever food you feed your fish.

Starve the fish for 2 days then feed only these medicated pellets for 3 days straight, nothing else.

After the 3 days I skip another day of feeding and go right back into 2 more days of medicated food.

Thats it... Go right back into regular food and regular maintenance.

One precaution though... WASH HANDS AFTER USING THE MEDS!!! DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. I swear I thought I was gonna lose an eye the first time I used this stuff...
 
fishfreak317;3639026; said:
just throwing this out there, but maybe it's getting ready to fade?
Click to expand...

Hi!
Not too sure of all the terminology here, do you mean go through a color change?

Anyway a little update.
Last night me and the wife were watching a movie when we noticed his color start to lighten. It was getting lighter as we watched. It didn't go all the way back to normal, but got a lot lighter to the point where we could make out it's markings.

This morning I have checked again, and though he is still quite dark, he is a lot lighter then the pic i posted in this thread.

I just have no idea what it could be.
 
beantickler;3637921; said:
The way I do it is mix the powder with some water to make a thick liquid with it. Soak the pellets or whatever food you feed your fish.

Starve the fish for 2 days then feed only these medicated pellets for 3 days straight, nothing else.

After the 3 days I skip another day of feeding and go right back into 2 more days of medicated food.

Thats it... Go right back into regular food and regular maintenance.

One precaution though... WASH HANDS AFTER USING THE MEDS!!! DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. I swear I thought I was gonna lose an eye the first time I used this stuff...
Click to expand...
NEVER KNEW OR HEARD ABOUT THIS MAYBE THATS WHY A FEW OF THE ONES I ORDERED FROM THILAND DIED ON ME HUH????:nilly::cry:
 
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