Blue Jaw Trigger

Hi,

haven't really been active here or anywhere to be exact for a while until now. I was looking at my blue jaw trigger fish that I've had for about a year now and I was comparing it when I just got it. It seems that the color has faded and I'm curious on why it changed.

The behavior of the fish is the same since I got it. Quite active during the day and also sometimes at night for an hour or two after lights go out then it goes in its little cave. Eats quite a lot and I usually feed it 2x a day and sometimes 3.

Foods (feed a bit of each):
Life Spectrum (large fish)
frozen mysis
nori
sometimes a bit of raw shrimp

could it be parameters? I'm pretty sure they're alright, but cant really list them since I forgot what they were when I checked them last week. I'll check it again tomorrow if it'll help.

When I got it


Now (btw, its not because of lighting (same type of bulbs)....its just that room lighting and camera stuff. (dark room and a quick shot to just show the fade)


Thanks!

 

many things could explain color fading in fish over the course of their lifespan in aquariums

some possibles are

Age - fishes do lose color as they get older

deficiency in diet, certain things they may eat in the wild, not being in as great a concentration when feed in captivity
there are commercially made additives , which you soak the pellets or other foods in before feeding that can help maintain colours, by providing some of the things that the fishes diet may be lacking

losing rank in pecking order - this could cause a once brightly colored fish to tone it down a little in order not to raise as much attention

the fish appears healthy enough IMHO

Steve

 

I don't really think it could be age since It's still just like 4"

I'll try changing his diet a bit. I'll try and feed more meat and a feed it bit more often that I do right now to make things more natural for him.

Could also be losing his dominance over all the fishes. I had 3 large fish in there (foxface, trigger, and a bannerfish) He's been with the bannerfish for about 10-11 months and suddenly attacked him for the first time and killed it. Now he just stays close to the rabbitfish and follows him around. No sign of agression.

Can it regain its color in the future?


Thanks!

 

It could do ATP123

but you may need to play about with diet to encourage this
try out some of the color enhancing food additives , and let us know if they work for you

but if its following the rabbit fish about, and the rabbit fish is a yellow fish
and the trigger has made a desicion to allow the rabbit fish to be the dominant fish
then the fishes colours may be subdued for that reason
basically the trigger does not want to be seen as competing with the rabbitfish

Steve

 

That could just be the reason.

I'll still try and play around with the diet and hopefully will have a bit of improvement and I'll let you guys know if anything works out

Thanks,
Haris