EEP! Algae eater turned black!

[haydenfish]

My daughters 20g has two chinese algae eaters, each about 4.5". One of them has turned black in the past couple of days.

Could he be getting a tan? I switched out the lights from the basic 17w kit to a 48w 10K/Actinic combo about two weeks ago.

Could it be chemical? About one week ago, I replaced the neon plastic decorations with some driftwood and plants from the LFS.

In both cases, wouldn't it affect both of them? Or maybe it just hit him first? Or maybe I'm just overreacting and this is something normal?

Thanks for any ideas!

[haydenfish]

Hmm.. just did a water test and my nitrites are really high, a first. I guess I'm doing a water change tonight.

[PEMfish]

Before and current pics needed here...

[sasquatch]

sounds like stress, new lights and bad water conditions, maybe screen the lights with a layer of window screen and do some water changes

[haydenfish]

Unfortunately (or fortunately if you like sleep), the baby is asleep and the tank is in her room, so access is out tonight. I did a 75% water change, and added some extra aquarium salt after reading about nitrite poisoning and the resulting "brown blood" condition. I guess well see tomorrow..

We have one of those baby monitor cameras. How bad of a father am I for wanting to turn it to watch the tank?

Thanks!
Mike

[haydenfish]

Well, it was either a temporary condition, or the water change/extra salt did the trick. I don't have pictures during, but the one sitting back on the wood was a solid charcoal color. I could barely distinguish him from the wood he was sitting on.







Thanks,
Mike

[SubRosa]

FWIW I would lose those Chinese Algae Eaters.Small ones (under 2") are great algae eaters but larger ones undergo a dietary change.They like to eat slime and scales off of larger fish.

John

[NATIVEVAMAN]

In exactly the oposite kind of story my sweety has thing for common gold fish.While in petsmart buying fish food one day she saw these common gold fish that were black across there backs and faces,not just dark but pitch black.They were in the feeder fish tank.She had the porr clerk trying to net 3 of these extremely ugly fish out of the 500 that must have been in the tank.I tried to pretend I didnt know her lol.I have to admit that 39 cents for three fish was a good deal lol.We brought them home and put them in the tank.Three weeks later they were solid gold,all the black was gone.They are still healthy and nearly 6 inch's long.My sweety who has compaining as a hobby is not happy that they turned gold.

[naperenterprise]

Yeah those feeder gold fish will eventually all turn....gold...
They will however keep the white in most cases.

Originally Posted by NATIVEVAMAN

In exactly the oposite kind of story my sweety has thing for common gold fish.While in petsmart buying fish food one day she saw these common gold fish that were black across there backs and faces,not just dark but pitch black.They were in the feeder fish tank.She had the porr clerk trying to net 3 of these extremely ugly fish out of the 500 that must have been in the tank.I tried to pretend I didnt know her lol.I have to admit that 39 cents for three fish was a good deal lol.We brought them home and put them in the tank.Three weeks later they were solid gold,all the black was gone.They are still healthy and nearly 6 inch's long.My sweety who has compaining as a hobby is not happy that they turned gold.