Jewel Cichlid Turning BLACK

[Ken McLean]

I have two jewels, a big 4" male and a 2" female.
They are on their 7th or 8th spawning. They spawned
at least once in a community tank, with all lost to
catfish and other predators, and are now in a 20Gl
at pH7.4 kH3 GH7, 82oF and have had 6 or 7 spawnings
there, one of which was partially saved, most were eaten
by the parents (or at least disappeared),anyway after
2-3 weeks now there are at least a good 100 fry swimming
around at the 5-7mm level (time for another spawn).

So all is happy, except the male is turning black,
he used to be pink with reddish coloration and blue highlights,
now his top and front is turning velvet brown black!
Is this some horrid disease, is he just pleased with his
reproductive prowess (e.g. dominant Ps. crabro males turn
black) could it be diet (I put a bunch of java moss and
similar small plants into the tank, he could be stuffing
himself on chlorophyll...). Could it be light, I keep the tank
lighted 24 hours...this seems to prevent the spawns from disappearing.

Actually, I have avoided water changes in this tank because I did
not want to startle the fish (they seem very tempermental) into
eating their young. It could be that the pH/KH is dropping with time,
I will run off and check. How about the temperature...it is high
but they seem fine so far.

The tank has a dual foam filter powered by an airstone, used to have
a mechanical pump (Hagan or AC200) but these siphoned the babies
out to easily.

Ken

(there are no other fish in the tank than the two jewels and
their babies, the fish are very easily startlable, very skittish,
I once had some bigger tetras in with them as dither fish, but the tetras took
too much punishment and the babies disappeared...blamed it,
probably incorrectly on the tetras, also tried a pike cichlid who had
a rougher time then the tetras (the jewels wouldnt let him out of a cave).

This male also jumped out of the tank (after I transferred them from
the community tank)

[The Leopard Woman]

Ken- I have also had this occur with my jewels, and am watching one male
closely right now for the same reason. Is his behavior any different?
The only common denominator I have seen with mine when this happens is
that I have gone longer than usual without a water change. I'm thinking
that it could be related to nitrate sensitivity. The fish are riverene,
and probably are used to constant changing, clean water. Three weeks in
the same stuff (in my case) might not be to their liking.

This is just a semi-educated guess; I have four jewels, and two are like
this, but the other two are fine.
--
—Meg (make sure there are no spots when you reply)
* * * * * * * * *
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide

[George Hannah]

I think this is caused by stress or poor water conditions. A LFS has
firemouths that are the same - they're almost black. A few months ago, I
bought some, and when I got them home in my tank, they turned to the normal
silvery color with black stripes almost immediately.

The Leopard Woman <TheLeop...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:372DB793...@netscape.net...

[The Leopard Woman]

George Hannah wrote:
>
> I think this is caused by stress or poor water conditions. A LFS has
> firemouths that are the same - they're almost black. A few months ago, I
> bought some, and when I got them home in my tank, they turned to the normal
> silvery color with black stripes almost immediately.
>

I'm still thinking this is the case, although the fish I mentioned has
still retained the dark coloration even though he has been in a "fresh"
tank for several days since I did water changes....