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I got 3 convict cichlid's last night and apart from my 2 oscars this is the only time i've ever had anything to do with cichlid's. My question is this last night when i got them the LFS told me that they can change color depending on their mood. Well last night and all day to day they have been normal color however tonight one of them has an aqua coloring under it's mouth. Can any one tell me why this is or what it means?

I know nothing about convicts, but I'll tell you that at a fish store the fish are stressed. When fish are stressed colors fade, markings can entirely disappear; my blue rams and kribensis are very expressive with their coloring. Odds are that coloring is completely normal, it just didn't show up because the fish was stressed in the store. Sometimes colors take a couple of weeks just to show up.

Soooo glad to hear that. Thanks i wasn't extremely worried because it looks magnificent especially under the lights. However i thought that maybe it did signify i specific mood that the convict was in. This is the first time i've ever had convicts too, i only got them a couple of days ago and love them sooo much i'm going back to get more. They have however taken up most of my days and nights, if i'm not looking in the tank at them i'm on the net researching them. But we all have that story to bear don't we and i think nearly all of us are victims of the hobby.. LOL

The lights show up colors at night, kind of like neon lights show up better at night verses day time.
My blue jack dempsey has black stripes and I have noticed that they change depending on their mood. The black stripes are more ounced when stressed, my firemouth(a great looking chichlid) reacts the same way.
Found out what is stressing them and try to prevent it, if it happens to often it can have bad results.

Sorry jacnyr just a little confused do you mean if he get's black stripes he's stressed (say like discus) or do you mean the blue on him means his stressed? Because he doesn't have distinguished black stripes apart from the ones that are normal for convict's.

Some fish will just color up from any intense situation. My kribensis will go from faded colors on her body to bright yellow/orange on the top and a full flush on the underside, with a defined black dividing line. This will happen if she is under stress, if she is eating food, if she is defending her teritory, or just curious. My rams on the other hand lose all color when stressed, and innitialy took a full two weeks to bring up to a decent color level, when they are stressed the black stripe on their eye fades but a dark spoted area on the lateral line shows up. Personaly I like to use a combination of color, behaviour, and fin position, as well as relying on water conditions to tell me how my fish are doing. I highly doubt the blue is a sign of stress.

Thanks Veteric, I'm pretty sure the convicts too lose their color if they are stressed. They are eating well and seem happy enough. I haven't thought it was stress just wondering what mood it did represent. I wonder how many moods a fish has? that would be interesting to know.

new world cichlids darken up and any vertical bars will become more prevalent when they are showing aggression or defending a territory or brood of fry.

when they are stressed or are showing submission to a more aggressive fish, their colors will fade as will their vertical bars.

Jason

Thanks for that Jason_R_S it seems to be only after i've fed them that the blue under their mouth becomes really intense and after a while they go back to normal, The stripes don't change color at all. But i'll keep a check on their stripes.

ya, not all the colors on all cichlids will change necessarily, at least if they're not under a whole pile of stress. What are you feeding your convicts by the way? I've been using bloodworms a couple times a week and they've made the biggest color difference on my fish, but those are all dwarf cichlids.

I've been feeding them Tetra ColorBits and they absolutely love them. When i bought them 1 of them wouldn't come out of his hiding spot to be caught and the man just casually picked up the Tetra ColorBits put some in the tank and the convict came straight out as soon as he saw them and completely forgot about the net. I feed them this 2 times a day and every second night they get either blood worms or brine shrimp. They also have a stab at my salmon catfish's "orca" sinking pellets too though. The ColorBits though this is what it says on the back.

ColorBits tropical granules is a slow sinking food that can be consumed in mid-water where larger fish like Discus & Cichlids prefer to feed. ColorBits is a highly nutritious diet which helps promote the development of vibrant colors of large tropical fish.

You gotta get some though they really do go wild on these.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Angel2211 2004-08-17 12:59][/span]