# I know some fish go through color changes...



## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Do jack dempsey's seem to go through them too? The female is still really pale, i've been testing my water everyday and doing 30% water changes every week. i use to do 50% everyday for 1 week because the water was super bad. Now that its ALL better, as nothing is bad in the water anymore. What could be going on? The male JD is so dark and colorful but the female is a bit pale with a little bit of color. I have tannish/white rocks. Maybe more hiding spots? I dont' want to go buy a bunch of plants that they're just gonna rip up like last time. Please help me out, Might seem annoying because of all the posts i post. But im kind of like.. WHATS GOING ON WIT HER COLOR?! ;D please help ^_^


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

P.S. 
They still get very startled when i come up to the tank. I've tried everything to make them less "shy" Nothings working..


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Post up a whole tank shot. Whats your feed schedule? Light schedule? Temp? Ph? What water are you using?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Feed schedule 10am. every other day. Light schedule. On at 10:00am off at 8:00Pm. Temp: 80. my water? haha. Ph 7.5


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Your water is city water or well water? Are you using water cinditioner? Is the tank in a high traffic area of your home?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

City and not a high traffic


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

And I'm using prime


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Tank pic?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Don't have one.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)




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## Boldstone (Sep 14, 2007)

Invest in a background, darker substrate (sand is awesome, even though I like your substrate), and more plants. They may never come to be your "puppies," but at least they'll be happy. Also give them a day a night...turn the lights off at some point.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

i did have ha darker background for a month and then it fell off but they still wouldn't come out.I put plants in and they ripped them out and i always give them a day and night. when the sun comes up i turn it on when it goes down i turn it off.


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## Boldstone (Sep 14, 2007)

Eh...maybe jacks aren't for you. Angelfish, parrots, and other cichlids enjoy their owners a bit more. My jacks like to mind their own business and I think they like me more when I mind mine lol. I've had 1 two years (I raised him...the one in the avi) and he still runs and hides. My tank is fully loaded, but as stated before it's jack nature; so, you may want to switch.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

nah i love them And she will come out when im on my bed watching where she thinks im not a around haha. they are beautiful. I will try the plants again. i wish i could find free ones tho. that way it wouldn't be a waste of money haha


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Just put mass fake plants. Tall and short. Maybe a piece if driftwood.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Sounds good! Thanks


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## Zombie Cichlid (Jun 26, 2012)

Don't do anything, give them time.
JD are shy fish, they need time to get settled.
And your female is not as colorfull as your male because he is the dominant, which is completely normal.
When you say your water is perfect, are you sure?
I ask because normaly people think their water is perfect just by looking at it.
Do a test for nitrite, nitrate, ph and amnunia and post the results.
Do not put natural plants (waste of money) they will tear them apart. Do not change your substrate for sand, there is nothing to do with that, your substrate is awesome, it's the same I use.
Do you use only regular light or night/ blue light as well? If you use regular light, try to turn off at 18h00 instead of 20h00. Ideally, you should use regular light from 10h00 to 15h00 and blue/night light from 15h00 to 20h00.
Of course, as you know the fish don't need those lights, we put lights so we can see them but they don't really need it. I talked about a blue/night light because using regular light for 10 hours everyday might raise your amnunia levels.
Keep us updated!


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

nitrite 80 nitrate 0 ammonia 0 lights r what came with tank


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

also pH 7.5


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

AFTER PUTTING THE PLANTS IN AND THE BACKGROUND. she got some color back ?! 
Male is under her!


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Male. Not sure how big he is tho. don't see any teeth yet!


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Male in the front female in the back. Is that how the females color should look? i think it look lots better than when she was just white!


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

Nitrite 80!?!?!


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## montellp (Jun 9, 2012)

nice if ur gravel was darker ur fish would be to


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

my bad nitrate 60*****


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

nitrite 0


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

And... Now the SAME female i was talking about earlier. Is in her "mating skirt" color. As in SO DARK with zebra line look on top. Crazy...


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Glaad your finally happy with them. They are an all time favorite.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Do you know what could be causing Shaking/Shivering? & darting at the pleco?


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## Boldstone (Sep 14, 2007)

Spawning behavior


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

Nitrate 60 is still pretty high.


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Yeah. I agree. If your truly feeding everyother day your nitrates should be no where near 60


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

honestly annoyed. I'm getting 2 different answers, one from here, the other from the pet store. Kind of annoying and really don't know who to believe anymore. Just gonna do whatever people tell me to do they seem fine. none of them have died on me so i guess they'll live. and ill keep on trying to make the water better.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

and i just did a nitrate test and its at 40


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Ok still high for just the fish you have. Water change/feed shedule?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

seriously? lol Water change 30% EVERY WEEK. Feeding.. EVERY OTHER DAY.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

& the guy told me anything under 80 is fine for nitrate.


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Just making sure because it doesnt add up.


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## Boldstone (Sep 14, 2007)

Lol. Ryan, your fish look great, and judging the pictures they don't show signs of anything being wrong. Additionally if they're showing spawning behavior the water is fine. Someone's gonna cuss me out for saying it, but I don't think you have anything to worry about just looking at the pics of the fish. Their color is normal and they look healthy. Once they get older you'll see even more color. So sit back and enjoy your aquarium. Keep doing water changes (because those never stop), but otherwise it's fine imo.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Thank you! Finally someone agrees with what im doing lol.


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## Zombie Cichlid (Jun 26, 2012)

Photos mean little.
It's true that your fish appears to be normal and healthy but just by doing water tests we can be sure.
It seems that your nitrate is high, but don't worry, it's easy to solve that.
Keep the water changes every 5 to 7 days, change your carbon every 6 to 8 weeks and add aquarium salt(1 spoon for each 5 gallons) to the fish tank once a week.
Keep the lights on from 11h00 to 17h00.
Wait 4 weeks and do another test for nitrate, nitrite and ph.
Feed them everyday, once a day, as much as they can eat in 3 to 5 minutes. The food that remains in the fish tank must be removed.
Use hikari gold floating pellets.
Keep us updated!
Good luck! and congrats on the fish, you have a beautiful couple of jacks there.


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

17 hours?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Wouldn't 17 hours give you major algae?


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

And why wait 4 weeks to test?


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Yeah lol your doing well as you are ryan. Maybe you could use a nitrate reducer? I use a media for that in my canister filters.


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

i just moved my aquarium so now theres new water and all the tests are exactly great!


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

If its all new water it will have to cycle again. Id add some stability asap just in case


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

i cycled it for 12 hours. i think it should be good. i put tons of prime in it and they look awesome!


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

What do you mean you cycled it for 12 hours?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

Um exactly what i said? I had it up and running for 12 hours..and then put the fish in. They're fine.


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Thats not a cycle. Google aquarium nitrate cycle.


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## Zombie Cichlid (Jun 26, 2012)

> Wouldn't 17 hours give you major algae?


i meant 11h00 o'clock to 17h00 o'clock, which means 6 hours.



> And why wait 4 weeks to test?


because by the test results that the OP posted, there is no evidence of a major water problem, so in 4 weeks time, doing the water changes, his water will be back to normal.
But we must give it time to cycle it, do the test in 2 days will mean nothing, we must wait at least 4 weeks to test it again and keeping test it until the water is cycled (about 12 weeks).


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

ya wasn't going to wait 12 weeks to put my fish back n the tank the red deviled would have killed them all if i put them in with him. so i put them back in after 12 hours. Sorry.


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## Zombie Cichlid (Jun 26, 2012)

ryanjamesg said:


> ya wasn't going to wait 12 weeks to put my fish back n the tank the red deviled would have killed them all if i put them in with him. so i put them back in after 12 hours. Sorry.


You did well. The red devil would have killed them all otherwise.
No big deal, stick to what i said previously even with the fish already in the water.
Try to test the water and post the results every week so we can better evaluate what has to be done.
But as i said, i believe that in 12 weeks your fish tank will be cycled and the water will be perfect.
Keep updating!
Good luck!


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

If you kept the filters wet, you should be fine. You kept all the substrate, right?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

i did.


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## Jake Levi (Mar 2, 2009)

Ryan how is the tank and your fish doing?

I read the thread through and you have done very well, re water changes, I would do the same amount but in two weekly changes. Do you have a protein skimmer? There are several good hang-on-back ones that could solve your nitrate problem over time. How are the plants doing? I expect that as things stabilize you will see more spawning activity. You might consider more hiding places for your pleco. They are my preferred algae control.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

Whenever I see Jack Dempsey juveniles, they tend to be either very dark almost black or much lighter grey. Sometimes there are grey ones and black ones in the same tank. It doesn't seem to be a dominance issue, a fright issue, or a light or dark substrate issue. Why the huge difference? It isn't sexual differences I believe.

At Petsmart I saw two tanks. In one tank some small Jacks were almost black, including the biggest dominant Dempsey, while there were two grey ones in their too. In the other tank there was 1 grey Dempsey which was the bigger one, 3 smaller almost black ones, and some Red Devil types which were the dominant fish in the tank. What is going on here?


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## ryanjamesg (Aug 26, 2012)

They're doing better =]. thanks!


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