Peta Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 okay this has got me puzzled... I toyed with setting up my two reds in a spawning tank - was starting to condition them both... I put Jaffa (whom I believe to be a PK) beside the tank with her soon to be mate in it (Santa - Red PKHM - I think -haha) ... and when I put Jaffa beside the tank she was her dark brown body with red fins..... came back a short time later to find her devoid of all color ... Normaly when she's stressed you'll of course get the loss of color in her body and the stress stripes show up, but this was different. Her fins always stay red. It was kind of like all the color had leaked out of her... very odd. I took this as a sign of stress, moved her away from Santa and set about returning Santa back to his normal tank. In the mean time, Jaffa's color was soon back and she was even 'redder' then before. She was happily flaring and showing off to Chicken in the bennie box next to her. So tonight I was trying to reorganize the tanks (moving beanie boxes away from where little people can get to them as have my four nieces staying over this weekend) ... and I happened to put Jaffa's tank near my HM Frankies tank... I did have a board up at first so Frankie couldn't see the other girls (ie Chicken and Jaffa) ... Jaffa was flaring off at Chicken and Chicken was ignoring her so I figured I'd give Frankie some exercise and took down the board so Jaffa and Frankie could say hello to each other. Again at this stage Jaffa was in full color - I know this as I had just been admiring how deep her color is becoming - very red and very dark brown in body... Well sure enough a few minutes later... Jaffa was washed out of all traces of that beautiful color! I started to wonder if she's scared of the boys or is it a mating thing like the baring?? .... I put up the board again - she got her color back, i took it down to show the boyfriend what she was doing - sure enough she dropped her color right in front of us as we watched... VERY Strange I'm extremlly perplexed by it. She actually has a bit of 'egg belly' on her so was planning to help her out with that condition I'll endeavor to get some photos if possible Mean while I thought I would come here and waffle on and see if anyone had any knowledge/experience to share :cheer: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 sounds like a stress reaction. Maybe try leaving her able to see him for 24 hours and see if she settles down and colours up again. Are you sure she is female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peta Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 no one? anyways... Jaffa again this morning.... Telling Chicken off.... under a minute later after I've taken away the board so she can see Frankie and not Chicken... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 sounds like a stress reaction. Maybe try leaving her able to see him for 24 hours and see if she settles down and colours up again. Are you sure she is female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 :P you and Lilli posted at the same time It just looks stressed. The colour bleaching and those horizontal stripes are a dead give away. If it was barring up for mating, the stripes go in the opposite direction, and most times there is no bleaching. To confuse matters though, you can have stress stripes and mating stripes at the same time, which results in a somewhat plaid look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VickiPS Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 It's pretty normal for a girlie's first response to a male to be fear. It takes time after they're first introduced for a girlie to start making eyes at the feller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peta Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 haha seems we did that'll teach me for being silly!! Thanks everyone It was just so odd that she went so colourless as I've seen her showing stress before and her fins have always stayed coloured. I know the baring look for when they are keen... but wasn't sure if there was also times when some may drop colour instead. I ditched that match up idea for now as she was being so odd hehe... and have moved on to two of my other fishies to see how they go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingers Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I'd give her more of a go than that! Females can apparently spend weeks getting fat before they take to a particular male, mine have always taken a day or two to settle down at any rate. Don't you already have two one week old spawns!? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I agree with kingers. The change in colour may just be more pronounced because she's dark to start with, or maybe she's just a nervous character in certain scenarios. Also - I agree with the comment that you probably already have your hands full with the 2 current spawns, lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peta Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 hmm true,.. and i do have 3 new girls due soonish... haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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