I have been looking at Tex pics on the net and the color pattern doesn't seem to really match those of what I have seen. He has the same body shape, but his colors are not nearly as defined as some others I have seen. He is about 5" now and has a faded black spot about mid body, near the dorsal fin. Has lots of shiny dots all over and such. Face is kind of free from the "freckles". Anywho, my real question is, besides feeding him the same ol' HBH Spirulina pellets, what else could I feed to bring out his colors better. I have a large can of TetraMin Pro flakes that I tried just a little bit ago and he seemed to like it a lot. Anything else I could do??? Thanks. I am gonna try to have some better pics up soon.
Questions about my Texas....
- Thread starter jdheff1982
- Start date
Here He/She is!!
Edit: How do I get the image bigger? It kept telling me no bigger than 550x500. I have seen others bigger than this.
Edit: How do I get the image bigger? It kept telling me no bigger than 550x500. I have seen others bigger than this.
I checked then about a day ago and everything was in normal parameters. He/she is housed with a common pleco.
Edit: I do need to do a water change for sure. HE/she has gone about 2 weeks w/o one. I can't do one during the week days because of 3rd shift and it is a big hassel getting water to go upstairs (from basement). I can't use any of the sinks or anything to drain the water, so I have to pull from outside faucet. Refilling tank, I can use an inside faucet. If I knew of a way to drain the tank and be able to catch all the junk that comes out into the sink, then I could use a sink. But for now, outside to drain, inside to fill. Any ideas would be great. I have thought about useing 5 gal water jugs to carry the water with. Thanks.
Edit: I do need to do a water change for sure. HE/she has gone about 2 weeks w/o one. I can't do one during the week days because of 3rd shift and it is a big hassel getting water to go upstairs (from basement). I can't use any of the sinks or anything to drain the water, so I have to pull from outside faucet. Refilling tank, I can use an inside faucet. If I knew of a way to drain the tank and be able to catch all the junk that comes out into the sink, then I could use a sink. But for now, outside to drain, inside to fill. Any ideas would be great. I have thought about useing 5 gal water jugs to carry the water with. Thanks.
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Frequent water changes will bring out the best color in fish. As will temperature and proper pH. Do you know the pH of the water? Should be neutral 7.0. The temperature ahouls be around 75 degrees. Sometimes other tank mates (Cichlids) will bring out the coloration as well. With the tank you have, you are maxed out already. Beyond that Dried krill will provide the proper enzymes necessary to bring out the coloration. Texas Cichlids are really not the most colorful of the CA Cichlids. At besy you can expect a slight deepening of the background blue/green. It it should go into breeding colors you will see a dramatic shift toward a monochromatic Black and White. Good luck. You should really figure a way to give a tank that sizea water change once a week...at a MINIMUM. ry doing it twice a week for a month and watch the difference.
How much lighting and what color substrate do you have in your tank? My smaller carpinte did not like the brighter sand I had in the tank....they looked very washed out. I've since changed over to a darker mix of gravel and all 4 of the little swimmers have deepened in coloration dramatically. I also do 25% waterchanges 2-3 times a week as well. I'll have to try out some krill and see if that will bring out even more color. I already have a pretty varied diet going... kensfish.com pellets, hikari cichlid gold, spirulina sticks, zuchinni, bloodworms and fresh shrimp.
Thanks for the advice. The pH in my neck of the woods hangs between 7.5 and 8.0+. The sand buffers the water very well and keeps the pH about 7.4 or below. Well, if I can get the jugs to drain my water into, that would be great. I could then keep the python in the basement with me and be able to drain and fill whenver psossible. I know I need to do more, but stupid 3rd shift really bites. I have even thought about taking him back and getting some smaller cichlids. But my LFS aren't very big on dwarf cichlids and they won't order any either. Not w/o paying $50+ per fish.
As far as the food is concerned, I'll try to get some more variety for the little guy. Right now, he/she is eating the HBH Spirulina pellets, TetraMIn Pro flakes, and frozen blood worms. I don't feed the blood worms very often because of the mess. I have also taken into consideration using one of those electronic gravel vacs or the hand pump type to prolong the water changes. I have already been using one of those cooking things (don't know what they are called
) They have the rubber ball on one end and a long plastic tube for sucking up juices or what not. This works ok, but I have nowhere to drain the water except into a small bottle.
I am gonna get a 5 gal jug from either work or the grocery store and use that. Well, gotta change the water. Thanks!
As far as the food is concerned, I'll try to get some more variety for the little guy. Right now, he/she is eating the HBH Spirulina pellets, TetraMIn Pro flakes, and frozen blood worms. I don't feed the blood worms very often because of the mess. I have also taken into consideration using one of those electronic gravel vacs or the hand pump type to prolong the water changes. I have already been using one of those cooking things (don't know what they are called
) They have the rubber ball on one end and a long plastic tube for sucking up juices or what not. This works ok, but I have nowhere to drain the water except into a small bottle. I am gonna get a 5 gal jug from either work or the grocery store and use that. Well, gotta change the water. Thanks!
Water Parameters
I just finished my water tests and here they are:
pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
KH: 2 degrees dKH
GH: 9 degrees dGH
My pH seems to have dropped a lot since my last test. Maybe I did it wrong last time. But this is the closest to 7.0 I have ever seen. I just hope it stays.
I just finished my water tests and here they are:
pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
KH: 2 degrees dKH
GH: 9 degrees dGH
My pH seems to have dropped a lot since my last test. Maybe I did it wrong last time. But this is the closest to 7.0 I have ever seen. I just hope it stays.
You water seems fine... Texas are pretty rugged fish and should handle different water conditions without too much stress.