griffrat

Hi all!! I was at the LFS yesterday and i was wanting to get some more fish. The one fish that I was really hoping to get was a cherry barb. Unfortunately, the only cherries they had were a grey, and I hadn't read anything on them loosing their coloration.

So, my question is the loss of color more indicative of a larger problem, i.e. disease? Or is it a diet and boredom thing?

thanks!!

Dojella

I always had the impression that the bolder the colors, the healthier the fish. But I think it can also be a boredom and color of the environment effect. I have a siamese algae eating shark and his stripe has always been really dark. I put him in my fry tank (bare except for sand) and he lost his stripe almost completely. I was worried he was sick or the water was bad and I put him back in his old tank (brown gravel and lots of plants). He colored up immediately. Since the change was so fast, I think that it was more his surroundings that changed his color rather than his health. I still do think in general that the better a fish is feeling, the brighter its colors will be.

Barbrella

Agree with Dojella.

Cherry barbs are usually nearly colourless in petstores, due to the fact that they're often very young and have no plants or other cover in those tanks.

Once put into a planted tank and after maturing a bit, they normally colour up beautifully.

BUT, in the store, they're usually a washed out, whitish colour, not grey.

griffrat

Awesome!! Washed out is the best description....grey just was a bad choice of words on my part. Thanks for the help!!!

Barbrella

Just as an example, the last 3 cherries I got were so washed out I actually had trouble picking out a male and two females.

A couple weeks later, the male looks like this! And that reminds me, always get at least two females for every male.

Attached Images

barb male jul 7.jpg (38.5 KB, 10 views)

Dark_Rider2k3

I was gonna say I heard the females don't get as "red" as the males, and was going to suggest that maybe the Cherry barbs you were looking @ were females?

I got mine from an amazing LFS and they were easy to pick the males and females apart.

griffrat

Well, I went to a different LFS and saw the same thing (i.e. washed out) and decided that I would get 6 to start and see if they got some color back.

Well I can report as soon as I released them into the tank that they turned a nice dull red and brightened up ever since!!

Awesome, thanks guys!!

Steen16

Yea I think it has to do with decor I had no backround on my tank and very few plants as soon as I got more plants and a backround my fish were brighter then I have ever seen =)