dinatwin

UPDATE The only thing I did notice today is the 2 neons are fighting alot. The one with the broken stripe seems to be the more aggressive one.


I have a neon tetra who's coloring is off. He was perfectly fine acts fine but i noticed yesterday he has missing color on his red stripe. Can an injury cause this. I did a water change yesterday and vacuumed the gravel and I hope I didn't injure him. He's acting fine eating well and swimming around fine. water parameters are ammonia 0 nittrite0 nitrates 10.

Here is a pic

capekate

Hi Dinatwin
Its hard to tell if it is an injury or just a break in its red coloring pattern? I would say just keep an eye on him and see if he continues to loose his coloring.

dinatwin

thanks capekate What would cause a break in his coloring?

capekate

Sometimes all fish do change their color pattern, even as they grow or get stressed and if they are sick. I have noticed neons and cardinals get pale in a second, and then back to normal.
Its hard to tell on your neon if this is the case, or if it is a white spot that can be an injury. Have you looked at it really closely? Can you see any raised indication of a bruise?
What I do sometimes when I need to look at a fish closely, is take its photo on my computer and zoom in. It lets me see things clearer.
Can you do this and then let us know what you find?
It is possible that the vacuum may have hit it, but not really probable as those guys sure are fast, but it could have happened.
At this point its so hard to say what can be wrong with it or even if there is something wrong. He is swimming around fine, eating, interacting and your water quality is great. Just a change in his coloring.
Let me know if you find anything else that can indicate an injury there and we can take it from there ok?

Lucy

Keep a very close one on him. It's been my experience with neons that once you notice a change in coloring like that something is really wrong.
Neon Tetra Disease comes to mind, but if he had that you'd been noticing him acting differently.

MrsM3197

Neon Tetra disease is a concern, especially since it's very contagious to your other neons. 'Course if he had that he wouldn't be acting normally at all. I've noticed my neons when I do a water change will lose color sometimes for a bit, and then when everything is back to normal and I'm not digging around in their tank anymore they brighten right back up. Do you think he might have got just a little extra stressed with your water change? Maybe he got startled and bumped into something trying to get away from the vac and got a bruise like Kate suggested.

PepsiGirl71

I don't know if fish sleep or not but I remember when I was a kid that the neons I had would be still when the lights were out, like they were resting. When I turned the aquarium light on they would be dull in color but soon would start stirring around and be full of color. Just a thought...

dinatwin

Thanks everyone. I looked real close at her and her stripe and there is definitely no cyst like things. just a broken color band. The other side of her band is still there but kinda lighter than it normally is. This is defiantly not the loss of color they get when sleeping. I experienced that and freaked the first time I noticed that.
Thanks again everyone i will keep a close look at her.

capekate

good morning Dinatwin
Glad to hear that there is no cyst on your little one. It is most likely just a color pattern that breaks in that spot.

dinatwin

Thanks Capekate I hope so