damsel color fade

gimpy9195 · 12-09-2006, 08:51 PM

my black damsel w/ white spot is fading in color. ha.. i had 4 of these guys and he is the only one left. I had 2 blue w/yellow also. they are all poop now.

anyway. why is my dammy losing color?

monkey · 12-09-2006, 09:08 PM

how long has your tank been running? what are your parameters?

gimpy9195 · 12-09-2006, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkey

how long has your tank been running? what are your parameters?

tanks been up for 7 months. i have a lionfish in there too. nitrate is the only thing that is a little off. just fixed that. tank is at 88 degrees

sssnake · 12-10-2006, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy9195

tanks been up for 7 months. i have a lionfish in there too. nitrate is the only thing that is a little off. just fixed that. tank is at 88 degrees

First, try and bring your nitrates down as much as possible, but I detect that this is not your problem. Your tank is running a high temperature.

88F is quite high. You should be in the 75-78F range. Presuming that your heater is working properly and set to the proper range, take another temp reading with a second thermometer to confirm that it is indeed 88F.

You can bring down the temp to the range level by doing one of two things:

1. Invest in a chiller. They are NOT cheap $$$ though!

2. Get yourself a fan and point it to blow air across the top of your tank. You most probably will experience some water evaporation but that's easily remedied by supplementing with some new water. DO NOT ADD SALT to the new water. Water evaporates, salt does not.

The fan option has worked for me and allot of other people in here. It should bring down the temp dramatically.

Good luck!

coral reefer · 12-10-2006, 05:15 AM

It is possible that your Damsel is faded colorwise due to the Lionfish in the tank! Being scared will cause fish to lose some of their coloration.
I don't think temperature is the case in this scenario, however, SNAKE is right, your temp is high. Damsels are found many times in shallow rock and coral reefs areas where the daytime sun heats the water up to a higher temp than say in a back reef area etc.