Thai Silk / Blue Diamond Flowerhorn Gone Black/purple?

[Thewindsinger]

Hi all,
 
I purchased a flowerhorn yesterday, she is a confirmed female having already laid eggs from being next to another tank with a male in at the shop. She was an electric blue not dissimilar to a EBJD before getting her home.
 
When I got her home she had flushed black. From the back of the tank it looks purple almost. Her fins have gone black, and most of her body. You can still see the bright blue on parts of her.
 
She is really, really black, I can post photos if it helps. I have had her for a day now and she is still as black as before. Will she get her colour back?

 

[fluttermoth]

She's almost certainly either angry or nervous. Many fish, including nearly all cichlids, do go very dark when stressed.
 
Of course, you should check that your water parameters are spot on, with no trace of ammonia or nitrite, and that your heater's working properly to rule out any other issues.

 

[Thewindsinger]

Will do a water test tonight, have a full testing kit. Heater is definitely on, water parameters should be great but worth looking into.
 
I know most go dark, I have kept almost every Cichlid available, but this is a very dramatic colour change that I have never seen. I also have black gravel and a black background so its only natural she would darken a little, but not to the extent that she looks like a different fish. I have never seen such a transformation.
 
I have done a bit of research into Thai Silks, and there are several pics on google of them being kept in tanks with black gravel with no colour loss.

 

[fluttermoth]

I don't have direct experience with flowerhorns, but I have seen some very dramatic colour changes in other cichlids! I saw a severum once and I couldn't even recognise what species it was at first 

 
I'm sure she'll get her more normal colour back once she's settled in

 

[Thewindsinger]

I hope so
 
If anyone has any experience with Flowerhorns it would be nice to get some reassurance
 
Ill keep my eye on her and make sure she isnt getting too stressed out. She is getting hassled by my EBJD and Super red spot severum, I think they like her

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Depending on size I have read on this forum that a flower horn should be kept alone in a 240 litre tank. Dunno if that helps but type flower horn in the search box. Think it's the thread with HEAVILY ATTACHED PHOtOS or something ?

 

[DerpPH]

Flowerhorns do tend to moult their colors. but they sometimes turn into faders which makes their blue parts of the body black and the pearls fade.
 
The species(?) is a bad mix of different cichlids though, thus making the gene pool unstable

 

[peacefulcounselor]

• I know this is an old thread, but one of my female flowerhorns goes completely black when she's ready to breed. It's a trait of the texas cichlids, which she must have mixed into her genetics. When she sees a male in another tank, if she's feeling "ready", she'll black out, sometimes to a purplish hue. If I don't breed her, she colors back up in about a week.