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guppies discoloring in breeding tank


gab
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So i have set up a 8gal shallow, bare bottom, plastic tank,then cicled a sponge filter in with some sponge that i had layng in the filter of my established aquarium,fed the tank a bit every day, tested the water until 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0.20 nitrate then filled it of water column feeding, fast and slow growing plants. now water parameter are fine and i started add 1 female "virgin" guppy every 4 days till reach 4, waited 2 weeks and yesterday i've put 2 males. temp is 75/77. ph 7.8 and my water is so hard, you can't brake it with an hammer.


in the past weeks, when the females were still alone, i have noticed some inactivity and floating on top of the water just under the light, no heavy breating or any other sign of distress, good apetite. so i just raised the temp of the tank a bit(at the time was 72/74) and all looked normal again despite the paleness.

I have noticed in general the females looked a bit less colorful in that tank but, i tought was my impression, that maybe the satin plastic side of the tank was giving me that impression. Now looking at the boys I've put yesterday thou i can see a clear loss of color respect the aquarium were in before. so i decided to take one back home and observe.. in the round of 15 20 minutes his color is back as deep as before.

Now all the fish behaviour in the breeding tank is normal, picking at stuff on plants,i see breeding behaviour, good apetite, no sign of stress like inactivity, heavy breating, swimming up and down the wall.


i do not understand, do someone have any experienced this?
ill post a photo of the tank soon. I'm eager to hear you guys opinions.

Edited by gab
more precision!
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IMG_20210206_144622.jpg.cd2fb8ce8b9574bc4eeb8be98b5bae3d.jpg

16126193134085197557813818946963.jpg

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in the pick below i can notice much less color on his head and his lower body that you cant see from the pic

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in the pic below the red tailed boy there has normally a really deep and noticeable snake pattern on a blue iridescent to green, seems graysh here.

16126196263168029894054142070494.jpg

Edited by gab
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i know is difficult to see, you have to trust my word on that, and no, like i wrote in one of the captions is also on ther abdomin but is really difficult to make a photo that is clear since they think im going to feed them and dart around excited. 
 

 

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3 hours ago, Colu said:

Your water conditions are fine the only thing disease wise I can think that it could be columnaris something else could be going on as that male went back to full colour sorry I can't be more helpful

no worries man, thanks for the input anyway!
maybe @Cory had something like this happening in his centenarian guppy mastery top of the game ultratested experience 😁

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Like mentioned above it could be stress from moving to a new tank. 

 

Where did you get the fish? From a fish store? Online? I bought some male guppies from a fish store last year and the males all sickened and died within 3 months or so. All my guppies are their descendants and doing much better. I bet they were used to briskish/salt water from a farm or something and couldn't handle just my hard freshwater. The male guppies I had all lost their bright colors and went very pale before passing. So I'm not sure exactly what your situation is if your water is good.   

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5 hours ago, David Ellsworth said:

Like mentioned above it could be stress from moving to a new tank. 

 

Where did you get the fish? From a fish store? Online? I bought some male guppies from a fish store last year and the males all sickened and died within 3 months or so. All my guppies are their descendants and doing much better. I bet they were used to briskish/salt water from a farm or something and couldn't handle just my hard freshwater. The male guppies I had all lost their bright colors and went very pale before passing. So I'm not sure exactly what your situation is if your water is good.   

mhh i see what you mean but the fish is some exemplars of the last gen of the 5year old colony im keeping

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Just to rule out any possibilities, was the plastic tote used for anything prior to housing fish? Possibly a contamination or toxin of some sort from a residue? 

Could the fish be muting their coloration in response to the lighter plastic colored environment?

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1 hour ago, MAC said:

Could the fish be muting their coloration in response to the lighter plastic colored environment?

I would also guess that. 

I've also seen that some fishes used to be in glass tanks don't enjoy living in plastic containers. Especially when something happens above the plastic container, the fishes seem a lot more scared compared to glass tanks. 

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2 hours ago, MAC said:

Just to rule out any possibilities, was the plastic tote used for anything prior to housing fish? Possibly a contamination or toxin of some sort from a residue? 

Could the fish be muting their coloration in response to the lighter plastic colored environment?

the plastic tote was before used to store solid objects and anyway i washed it throughly before to use so i tend to exclude that. the second thesis may have some sense in effect, in the tank they normally live in the substrate is black and there are dark stones too, dark background aswell and makes sense they would adapt lighter in a lighter tank with no substrate! i think you are right!

 

1 hour ago, Fonske said:

I've also seen that some fishes used to be in glass tanks don't enjoy living in plastic containers. Especially when something happens above the plastic container, the fishes seem a lot more scared compared to glass tanks. 

mhhh!! never really used plastic containers and actually i was a bit skittish in doing so but then i saw it as an experiment, in the end a plastic tote is easyer, cheaper, more versatile and not difficult to reuse or dispose, has a lot of pros, if you don't need to use it as a display... as you see on the photos for me everything is on a budget and DIY,  space is gold because i now live in a small, old house with (beautiful!, but) uneaven extraold wooden floors, so i can't have big or many tanks like in the past.

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Sir,

Just out of curiosity, can you see which type of plastic your container is made of? If it is in a position where you can see the three arrow recycle symbol and read the number in the center. Like a number 2 or 5, for instance. 

Most should be safe for your fish and it's probably way out there that it isn't, but it would be nice to know if you have a mystery to solve. 

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