Whats wrong with this fish?

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I have two slenderheads in my tank and this one has just overnight two nights ago turned extremely light colored. I dont know if this is breeding colors or if something is wrong, thanks

Have you noticed anything else different with the fish?

it seems a little less active but nothing else really

It's almost impossible to diagnose a fish disease properly with a picture. Just a question, have you checked your water quality including temp?

Whatever he's got, get him OUT before he dies so the other fish dont eat him. It could be something infectious. Yes, all other fish in the tank are already exposed to whatever it is, but not at the level they will be if that one dies in the tank.

Woah. That is not good. He is distressed.

It could be physical distress caused by dirty water, too hot of temperature, or a pathogen. Check your ammonia (should be 0 ppm, no higher), nitrite (should be 0 ppm, no higher), and nitrate (depends on the species, my general rule of thumb is 40 ppm is too high). A pH swing of 1 pH or more in a short amount of time could also cause physical distress. A sudden dramatic temperature change may also cause distress. If it is a pathogen, you'll know soon enough. Note what other symptoms he gets.

It could also be social stress due to bullying from a conspecific or fear of predation from a larger fish. The orange stripe on his fin marks him as a male, so if he's the submissive male and trying to submit and the other male isn't getting the signal and still beating him up, that could cause him to blanch. He would try to be as gender neutral as possible to avoid being beaten. Or if there's a larger fish and no cave to hide in, he could feel afraid of being eaten and be trying to stand out as little as possible.

Edit:
Gerald is right. I would quarantine the fish. He is clearly not happy in the tank he is in, so moving him to a new place might help. And if it is a pathogen and he dies and ruptures, then that would greatly increase pathogen load in the water column and the risk of your other fish becoming infected. Back when a few of my fish had camallanus nematode a long time ago, as soon as I saw the worm sticking out of their butt I moved them to the camallanus tank. I did that for a few fish and the main tank became pathogen free. It really does help to get the sick fish out.

Edited by EricaWieser, 23 February 2012 - 07:52 PM.

Start with the basics,

What is your ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & temperature levels? Did you just perform a water change? If you did a water change, was the temperature close to tank temp. or was there a big difference? If so do you have well water or city water? Did you treat the city water with a dechlorinator prior to adding it to the tank? Is the fish new or did you add any new tank mates & if so what? Have you noticed any aggression in the tank lately? has it been eating?

I did nothing different with the tank i checked all the ph ammonia and nitrate water temp is the same. i just got home and his color was back

also, he has gotten much fatter in the last few days. i did just remove a large green sunfish from the tank making him the largest fish in the tank

i removed that green sunfish 2 days ago and also i have had many fish do this before when im gone and the lights arent on for a couple of days but never overnight. his color is completely back now and i will be keeping close watch on him

Edited by AndrewMeiborg, 23 February 2012 - 11:58 PM.

Some Darters change colors right before your eyes, chamelion like. I have seen Bama Fantails go from white to black and back to white within seconds, not sure which specie but it was likely males guarding their nest sites proudly. Lots of color change moving from shadows to light, during breeding and general struting about. Often i will flip a rock over and a very dark Redline will be sitting there, and then he or she will slowly lighten in the sunlight. Also Darters can camo pattern to match the surrounding substrate. Also when it gets dark they can patternize. Logperch get a trio of shadow bars across their backs as twilight sets in. Cumberland Snubnoses will turn green nosed if you play with them, no lie i tell.
So... i aint been to Iowa so don't rightly know how your Darters act... you might be learning something. Keep watching.

Also, fish can lose their colors if they have a "stroke". There was an article a few years back in aquarium fish international magazine talking about this condition. The whole fish could lose the color, just parts. They had images of a fish's head where half of it lost the coloring, the rest of the fish was fine colored. Just another idea of what COULD have caused this.

Getting fatter suddenly is a bad sign -- it suggests fluid retention and osmo-regulatory failure, possibly from an infection in the kidney or something else (dietary or water qual maybe?) that has damaged the kidney. Salt might help (1 teasp/gal) but if its a bacterial or viral kidney disease then recovery is rare. If he's still eating and breathing looks normal, there's hope. If he stops eating and starts breathing faster, his chances are nil.

also, he has gotten much fatter in the last few days. i did just remove a large green sunfish from the tank making him the largest fish in the tank

ive tested the water i have 0 nitrites 20 nitrates 0 ammonia and 8.4 ph, which is what they have been since last summer when i got him

i just fed and he didnt get very aggressive like usual, his breathing is still normal though

Let me throw these two questions out to you Andrew... Check the first dorsal fins of you slenderheads. Is there another slenderhead who's first dorsal fin is more intense and it's body maybe more dusky colored? Second question is since you have added more fish from last weekend have you been feeding more? The reason I ask is if the one you are concerned about is a female she might be being driven to spawn which can cause stress if she (?) is the only female available and her being bigger could be the development of eggs. Or It could just be it is eating more due to the extra feeding.

the other slenderhead is darker but they both have a pretty big band of orange on the dorsal fin. all the fish from last weekend went in my empty ten gallon and feeding has been the same although i am feeding mysis shrimp instead of bloodworms which has been there diet for a couple of months

Here's a quote a got from the wabsite: http://en.microcosma...com/wiki/Mysis. " Mysis relicta is a natural product enriched by the food chain of the lakes from which it is harvested. This is because of Mysis relicta's highly diversified eating habits. The extremely high levels of EPA and DHA (fatty acids) is related to the food chain found in deep cold waters, such as those where Mysis is harvested. These fatty acids not only provide your fish with essential nutrition, but also stimulate an energetic feeding response." Maybe it has taken a liking to the mysis and is eating more. One thing I would suggest as I have done this for a few decades, I always skip a day of feeding for my adult fish when feeding "non live foods" whether tropical or native no matter what time of year. I believe it is healthy for them and gives their systems an opportunity to clean out. Too many people think they have to feed their fish foods daily or they'll starve. My response to that is how many people do you see standing over river banks, at the edge of lakes etc. throwing fish food in the water to make sure the fish eat daily?

One thing I would suggest as I have done this for a few decades, I always skip a day of feeding for my adult fish when feeding "non live foods" whether tropical or native no matter what time of year. I believe it is healthy for them and gives their systems an opportunity to clean out. Too many people think they have to feed their fish foods daily or they'll starve. My response to that is how many people do you see standing over river banks, at the edge of lakes etc. throwing fish food in the water to make sure the fish eat daily?

"Fish" is a large term describing a wide range of different organisms. Some are like bunnies (constant grazers, if their stomach empties they have problems) and some are like crocodiles (eating once or twice a week is fine). It's all about what level of the ecosystem that particular fish species occupies.

For example, my Elassoma gilberti are micropredators. They are one inch long and they live in the densely vegetated swamps of Florida and Georgia. In the wild they eat many times during the day, snacking on various foods like insect larvae and worms and stuff. This means that in the home aquarium if you don't feed them for a day, they suffer. I feed them twice a day, and their bellies get physically shrunken if they eat less frequently than that.

Top food chain predators and carnivorous scavengers don't necessarily eat every day in the wild. Omnivorous grazers, micropredators and herbivores may. Depriving the latter three types of fish of food would not be helpful to the fish. For example my chinchillas or my friend's rabbits (grazers) would develop digestive problems if they were deprived of food for any length of time. They need lots of fiber, all the time, something in their stomach. Otherwise you have a very messy cage to clean up and an unhappy, ill animal.



Edit:
I reread your post. Yes, there is a risk that eating nothing but freeze dried worms and dried fish flakes day in day out will cause constipation. This risk can be reduced by soaking the dry food in water for a few seconds before giving it to the fish or by occasionally giving them something different to eat.

Alternative foods include:
thawed frozen bloodworms, tubifex, and mosquito larvae
live grindal worms, blackworms, wingless flies, daphnia, earth worms, and wax worms
grated or chopped frozen unbreaded cocktail shrimp, and beef heart cubes
steamed zucchini, broccoli, carrots, and peas

So you don't have to not feed your fish, but you're right it is not a good idea for them to eat nothing but super dry foods. They can be given other, less dry things to enrich their diet. It helps to keep them healthy and prevent constipation.

Edited by EricaWieser, 24 February 2012 - 01:36 PM.

they are used to eating thawed frozen bloodworms, now i feed them thawed frozen mysis shrimp. Every once in awhile i feed them flakes but thats just to keep the sunfish busy so they dont eat all the frozen food