Zebra slight pink in color

[crazie.eddie]

I happened to look at it when I turned over the wood it was latched on to, to see how it was doing. I noticed that my zebs was a little pink, more in the lower half of it's body. I heard this might be due to stress? I'm thinking it might be pinkish due to the bloodworms and hikari sinking carnivore pellets. I know these foods are supposed to enhance the redness in fish, which is the reason why I'm thinking my zeb was looking very light pink. So I was curious if I should worry about the slight pink in it's body. It's eating fine, no problems with it's feces.

Here are the specs:
Pleco: Zebra, about 3-4 months old.

Tank: 5 gallons
Temp: 82 degress F

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Chlorine: 0
pH: 7.5

Furniture: Driftwood and a cave made from a slate on top of 2 rocks that support it.

30%-40% water changes either daily or every other day.

Food: Bloodworms, Hikari sinking carnivore pellets, & beefheart mix (made by my discus breeder)

[CDNAqua]

Hi Crazy Eddie,

I think you may be stressing them out by changing too much water.

In small tanks such as your 5 gal you don't have that much good bacteria to compensate for such frequent large water changes.

Perhaps try doing 10- 15 % every other day with a 5 gal. Or just suck out uneaten food daily at 3 - 5 %

Food may contribute to a portion of redness to Zebra but IMHO your doing too much water changes.

I strongly suggest you only change that much water when your simulating a rainy season for spawning. Realisticly you should only change water everyday for a week or so during a rainy season .

I recommend a larger tank, especially if you tend to overfeed and find you have to change that much water to maintain your tank.





Peace


Troy

[chanettt]

i think that it's because of changing too much water as well. and eventhough it's not that much amount of water i still think by bartering the zebra everyday would be too much for them. every other day is better. for me i do change every 3 or 4 day. as long as you take all the left over food out every time you feed the zebra then the condition of the water will be fine.

[crazie.eddie]

Thanks. I'll change the water less often and smaller amounts. The 5 gallon is a quarantine tank I kept it in when I brought in home about 2 months ago. I've never moved it since then, but I already do plan to move it into a 10 gallon, along with substrate, fish (Endlers), and some Cherry shrimp. I kept it as a BB tank to make sure I know it's eating the foods I've given it.

[crazie.eddie]

I forgot to mention, the water I used for the WC was dechlorinated, aged 24 hours, and is set the same temp as the tank of 82 degrees F. This shouldn't stress them out, should it?

[McEve]

feeding them any shrimp product will make them slightly pinkish in the white.

I've found that a stressed Zebra loose his black colors and become grey and pink when stressed?

I don't think black and pink is anything to worry about.

The males can sometimes get very red first ray of the pelvic fins when they've been fighting, but it doesn't sound as though this is what your fish is experiencing?

[smithrc]

ours have a pink colour when 'angry' eg if fending off a cave raid