Green Terror Changes?

[seanh]

I purchased a green terror approx. 6 months ago which was confirmed here as being male. He was full of colour and had a fairly prominant nuchal hump, however, over the last 3 months or so his colour has diminished somewhat (especially the orange on his fins) and so has his nuchal hump!

Why could this be? What may cause this as i dont want to end up with a drab GT.

All other fish in the tank are florishing and full of colour..

Before
And recently

 

[Chockful O Phail]

Looks pretty healthy to me, could be just adaptive camouflage. Other than that what's the temp/ph?

 

[MonsterFishCreeper]

Not so sure if that's a male. The rounded short dorsal and anal fins look more like a female as does the thickness of the band on the caudal fin. Female gts can get a bit of a hump going and I have a large vibrant male without much of a nuch on him.

 

[Rocksor]

I say male due to the missing green bearding/lipstick. When my male GT was young, 1-2 years of age, it went through phases of nuchal hump and bright green when showing off to a female cichlid or trying to be the dominant male in a cichlid tank; just like in the top and bottom picture. Eventually the male will have a slight hump and more green by 3-4 years of age, and not really revert to the bottom picture.

 

[Athletic_Amph]

speaking strictly on the color/brightness of the fish and not whether or not it's male/female...
and assuming water quality is where it needs to be (no offense)...

there's a good chance that at the time of the first photo (s)he was King of the tank, top of the totem pole, and made it known with its personality/attitude and it showed by the bright coloring it was displaying...

Being that the second photo is a few months down the road, there's a very good possibility (s)he has been taken down a peg or two and is no longer the dominant fish in the tank, which would lead to it beginning to blend in to the tank more - rather than being so bright that it stands out among the rest of your stock

 

[seanh]

Looks pretty healthy to me, could be just adaptive camouflage. Other than that what's the temp/ph?

Ph is 8 and temp is 26 degrees.

The GT is the second most dominant in the tank. Interesting how looks can vary so much. Not sure how old the fish is now but at a rough guess id say a year.

 

[cichlidsickness]

Ph is 8 and temp is 26 degrees.

The GT is the second most dominant in the tank. Interesting how looks can vary so much. Not sure how old the fish is now but at a rough guess id say a year.

I think Athletic_Amph is right and the green terror isn't displaying its full potential color because it isn't holding the top of the pecking order. If its really a big issue, consider either giving the GT his own tank or taking out the fish that are above him in the pecking order. If things are going good in the tank (minimal aggression, fish get along, etc.), I would personally just leave the tank how it is.

Either way, its a very nice looking GT, keep doing what you're doing and keep up the good work

 

[seanh]

He is second in the pecking order with a larger chocolate above him, so not as dominant as perhaps he once was.

You are right. I currently have a good mix at moment, with next to no agression so i will leave it as is.

Thanks for you input

 

[Pat jennings]

Not so sure if that's a male. The rounded short dorsal and anal fins look more like a female as does the thickness of the band on the caudal fin. Female gts can get a bit of a hump going and I have a large vibrant male without much of a nuch on him.

Is there usually more or less thickness on the caudal fin? Here is a picture of my 2.5 inch GT. I can’t tell if it is a male or female.

 

[DwarfCichlidLvr]

And recently

This is off topic but what is that other fish on the right? Looks like an Oscar with the fins of a laetacara and the color of an uaru. lol