So a few weeks ago I got a 65gal tank with a colony of various Cichlids from someone on here, and though everything seems to be going smoothly the Yellow Lab has gone through a few weird color changes.
When I picked him (her?) up, she was a nice solid yellow. We transferred her into a large bucket with a few Convicts for transport and then I set up the tank. Setup took longer than I would have liked, and by the time I had everything ready to go the Yellow Lab had lost almost all of his color and was looking almost how what I would expect an Albino to look. After a few days color began to return and everything was going well, but then last night I noticed the yellow coloring was starting to fade and this morning she looks almost white again.
Is this color changing something I need to be worried about? Does it have a specific cause? All the others in the tank look to be doing well.
Edit: after rereading this, I realize I was all over the place with the him/her. There is only 1 Yellow Lab in the tank
Could be a number of things
I guessing it would be a female and she is Stress ....Stress will cause fish to loose color.
Check PH ?
Quality of food
TRY switching around of the rocks
Food is the same as they were being fed at the old home.
My 4 year old got into my test kits, and long story short I can't check the PH till I get a new one. I'm pretty sure the sand is supposed to buffer the PH, but I'll make a point of checking it as soon as I can.
Move the rocks around how? Create more hiding spaces?
Check all your water parameters, a spike in water chemistry can stress fish and make them loose colour. Also check temperature.
Could also be other fish picking on the lab and causing stress.
Bruce
I think I might know why the lab is feeling stressed, I found this last night, plus 4-5 additional hiding among the rocks. Once I knew what was happening, I realized mama was guarding the cave quite viciously.
The lab in particular would usually hide in this spot.
Oops, meant to post this photo as well.