Why's he doin that?

[kimura]

First of all i'm a newbie converting from freshwater,so i beg your patience.

I have a fifteen gal. fish only,with two fish. this brings me to my questions. I have an arc eye hawkfish (that I love) he had graet orange color when i bought him. after about two days he has begun turning more brown, primarily his head and down the top of his back. Why's he doin that ? my water tests fine,and he's the bully of the tank, and has plenty of perches, is it a camo thing?

 

[forsfed50]

I've noticed they usually turn darker colors when they are stressed. He is probably stressed. What is stressing him is the question?

 

[kimura]

That was my other thought, had fresh water fish do that. I don't know would be stressing him. My ph is a little low but other than that my water is perfect no ammonia no nitrates no nitrites. Are there some trace elements that I'm missing that they prefer? Is it lack of live rock? And if so is it too late to add it if i cure it properly? Thanks for the help!

 

[forsfed50]

My lfs always has cured rock so I've added whenever I wanted. If your lfs rock is uncured I would cure it so there is a minimum of die off. When choosing your rock you can smell it and avoid rock that has a lot of sulfur aroma.

 

[kimura]

Thanks, i have a great LFS that does have cured rock,the colors suck so i was being picky, i'll try that. And thanks for the choosing advice too. Sulfur smell means too dead matter?

 

[oneradtek]

yea itll smell like rotten eggs/death haha