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First off, water temp. and ALL other parameters are good and stable, with weekly PWC's @ 25-30% .

Thursday morning as I was turning on the tank lights, I noticed a F. splendid rainbow with a BLACK patch on the upper left side of her head, as if the head was divided into 4 equal parts and one of the sections was "painted" black.
The rest of her body was a pale gray- loss of all color, still had gill movement but was for the most part listless, lethargic in the mid strata.
15gal.Q-T was set up with main tank water, light left off to reduce stress, both 15 & 46 were then dosed with prima/mela,
getting a pic was not possible( was almost late for work).
Came home looked at Q-T, the female was active, coloration was back to normal, and that "black mask" had vanished, as it were never there, entire time-lapse approx 19hrs.
The splendid is still in Q-T for further observation, everyone is still getting prima/mela doses every other day, just in case,plan to keep in Q-T for another week, maybe longer.
Not sure if this may be related to that parasite problem I dealt with some time ago, Praziquantil treatments were stopped maybe 3+ weeks ago.
Just curious if anyone has seen or heard of anything like this before, sorry I did not get a pic, but if it shows up agin I will get one !!!

Thanks in advance everyone !!

J.

Just a guess it could be a night colouration and when tou first turned the lights on you saw it.

Do a small experiment with the tank light off for a few hours and see if you can see the fish in the dark. Then turn the lights back on and watch to see if there is any change in colouring.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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That ran through my mind for about 1/3 of a second, most of my fish do show a slight paleness when the lights first come on in the mornings, but rapidly brighten up within minutes never to the extreme that this one displayed, especially that black portion on the head, just struck me as really odd, I know I've not seen everything there is to see, but this is currently #1 in my book of bizarre fish observations ! lol

Thanks Keith

It is pretty weird, I have some splendida's myself, and black just isnt in their colour range, awake or asleep. Id keep a close eye on the fish for now, just in case something more severe develops. Rainbows can get mycobacterium pretty badly, and that sometimes shows as muscular lesions that may haemorrhage internally, kind of looks like a bruise sometimes.

Rainbows also suffer from a bit of a mysterious disease termed "blackscale" when fed too much bloodworm in the diet without rotating the chronomid midge larvaes around between the three major available groups (you can also get blackworm and glassworm). Its rare, and to date ive only seen it personally once in a boesmanni rainbow, but the fish lived with its affliction a long time despite not looking particularly healthy. It might be a long term nutrient blocking issue, perhaps something to do with thiaminase.
It wasnt my fish, so I didnt get to experiment, but if I could have , I might have tried a food source rich in B vitamins to counter.

I'll keep an eye out on it for sure, mycobacteriums, aren't some of, if not all of them ohhh... whats that word... zoonitic ?? is not species specific, can infect everything, cats, dogs, people and so on...

As far as diet, the blood worms are an occasional treat, maybe once a week, everything else is varied daphnia magnus,tubifex, mosquito larvae and brine shrimp, these in particular are the Hikari Bio-Pure freez-dried stuff,vitamins listed-E C B1, B2, B6,B12, then there is the algae wafers with vits. A,C,D3,E. and the fresh veggies are blended carrots and peas... they love that mix! so I think I'm ok on variety in the diet. Maybe its chemerism??
I'll be sure to get a pic or twenty should this ever occur again, it just caught me off guard last week, anywho, as of this moment, the fish is active, colorful, eats good at feeding time....everything else seems ok

Thanks for the input, will keep ya all posted !!


J.