What causes a fish to turn lighter?

mack606

mack606

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Feb 15, 2004
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Vancouver, Canada eh
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Hello,
At my local petsmart, most of their cichlids are completely black. The convicts are barely striped becasue they are so dark along with the green terror, some kinds of parrots (not the orange ones) and the jack dempsys. After I buy one and put it in my fish tank they change to their more natural colour. I've noticed that they turn darker after they have been fed and when they are frightened. What other environmental factors change their colour, and why are they so dark at petsmart?


THANKS
 
Petsmart you say? Probably stress (too many other fish/poor water conditions). Lights out will also cause cichlids to turn colors. Breeding, and fry rearing also. Colors are like the cichlid version of facial expressions. Certain substrate colors will also cause color to lighten and darken (like fishy camo)
 
Jaguars definitely turn black when stressed...
 
mood, stress, environmental factors, seasonal/mating behaviour, many things. :dance2: :girl:
 
My clown loaches sometimes randomly turn real light when they get done eating or something of that nature and than before it hits you that they did that, they are back to normal. Its strange, anybody know why?
 
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