I have had 6 adult convict cichlids in my tank for about 3 months now. They came to me from a pretty overstocked and generally neglected tank and they looked almost white in color. The color came back fairly quickly within the first month or so but has not improved since. I feed them on a regular basis 2x daily and do about a 50% water change once a week. The small female has brilliant colors compared to the males and I'm not sure why. How do I spark their inner rainbow and make them colorful little zebras? They seem to be healthy because a batch of about 10 or so fry have grown to almost ½ to ¾ of an inch long, their coloration seems ok but still not the best (picture in attachments)
Water parameters
PH: 6.8
Ammonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 160 ppm
All these measurements were taken 1 day before the weekly water change and to the exact specifications of the testing kit (below)
Food
I use two different pellets, one sinker, one floater. Recently just added in the cichlid gold to the mix. I throw in a little bit of the mix and let them pick what they want.
The mix.
Fish coloration
Most colorful male The colorful female
The ugly looking male (two of them look like this)
One of the other males looks like the first but with less colorful stripes
The second female looks like this male too, not too colorful on the stripes but at least has a grey body color.
The two males that look like ghosts I know to be bullied by the big colorful male and they are very skittish, opposite of the other fish in the tank who seem very friendly.
the overall color on all the fish is sub-par from what I've seen on the internet, are my fish a less colorful breed in general? are they overstocked? am I feeding them right?
Water parameters
PH: 6.8
Ammonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 160 ppm
All these measurements were taken 1 day before the weekly water change and to the exact specifications of the testing kit (below)
Food
I use two different pellets, one sinker, one floater. Recently just added in the cichlid gold to the mix. I throw in a little bit of the mix and let them pick what they want.
The mix.
Fish coloration
Most colorful male The colorful female
The ugly looking male (two of them look like this)
One of the other males looks like the first but with less colorful stripes
The second female looks like this male too, not too colorful on the stripes but at least has a grey body color.
The two males that look like ghosts I know to be bullied by the big colorful male and they are very skittish, opposite of the other fish in the tank who seem very friendly.
the overall color on all the fish is sub-par from what I've seen on the internet, are my fish a less colorful breed in general? are they overstocked? am I feeding them right?
