# Black Neon tetra losing color



## Fishbowling (Jan 7, 2013)

Mine do that too, at night. The first morning after I got them I came out to the living room, saw them like that and almost had a heart attack. But they colored right back up after they all woke up. I don't really know why they do it, but it doesn't seem to be harmful to them, and no one's outwardly sick in any way that I can tell, so I figured it's just something they do.

Now I'm curious; off to do some research on this. 

Edit: found this. I learned something today. 



> Most smaller fish lose color at night. It's a defensive thing that makes them harder for night time hunters to see them while they rest. It's more pronounced in some fish than others and some recover their color faster than others.


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## meppitech (Apr 29, 2011)

Let us know if he colors back up again. I second the comment about them doing this at night. My cardinal tetras do it too


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Depends. If it looks pale right when the lights turn on, it's normal. If it's turning pale and starts to avoid the rest of the shoal, then something is definitely wrong.


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

I had the lights on for a good 6 hours and I saw him looking pale 


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

Woke up to this, this morning:


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## ADJAquariums (Jul 5, 2012)

hmmm, mabey some sort of internal parasite, i see nothing on the outside to indicate otherwise, what are your water parameters? ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc...


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

I havent checked them recently but he is the only one that looked like that, I have a totally live plant planted tank, low tech.


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

Just tested them and everything looks to be in check and fine, could it be an internal parasite?


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## meppitech (Apr 29, 2011)

It could


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## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

In my experience, when a black neon dies, it will cloud up and lose its color. This actually makes them harder to spot in my hornwort than I'd like >.>

They're a fun little fish - and hold up better than true neons, since they're not so inbred.


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

I'm thinking all of my black neons that died had an internal parasite because everyone looked the exact same as this one when they died.


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