# guppy changing colors?



## ruby716

Hi, I have 2 fancy tail male guppies, and one of them seems to change colors. One minute his body will be like a dark blackish color, and then a couple hours later I will look @ him and his face to his middle region is white, and from the middle of his stomach to tail looks black. So half his body is black and the other is white. Then at other times his body will all look one color? Is this normal?


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## LasColinasCichlids

ruby716 said:


> Hi, I have 2 fancy tail male guppies, and one of them seems to change colors. One minute his body will be like a dark blackish color, and then a couple hours later I will look @ him and his face to his middle region is white, and from the middle of his stomach to tail looks black. So half his body is black and the other is white. Then at other times his body will all look one color? Is this normal?


 
From what I have gathered in my times of keeping guppies, their coloring will whiten when stressed...due to water parameters changing to include higher nitrite and ammonia levels, also when temps drop. Also when the fish is general stressed, like switching tanks or if another fish is stressing them by harrassing them. 

Could it be the light hitting his body differently in the tank making him appear to change colors? If not, do a water test to make sure water parameters are safe, and go from there.

Hope this helps.


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## ruby716

LasColinasCichlids said:


> From what I have gathered in my times of keeping guppies, their coloring will whiten when stressed...due to water parameters changing to include higher nitrite and ammonia levels, also when temps drop. Also when the fish is general stressed, like switching tanks or if another fish is stressing them by harrassing them.
> 
> Could it be the light hitting his body differently in the tank making him appear to change colors? If not, do a water test to make sure water parameters are safe, and go from there.
> 
> Hope this helps.





yea its just weird cuz his face looks like a whiter color up to his middle section, than the middle to the tail end of him is much darker like a blackish color, its like 2 colors at times and its so noticeable, like half white half black... i dont think its the lighting.. ive had the tank for a little over a month and i my ammonia is always .5 no matter how many 50% water changes i do.. one time there was hardly any in it, but its always .5.. i know .5 isnt horrible, since guppies and white cloud minnows which i also have are hardy fish, but i still shouldnt have any.... i have no nitrites and ph is good.. i think it was 7.4


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## LasColinasCichlids

ruby716 said:


> yea its just weird cuz his face looks like a whiter color up to his middle section, than the middle to the tail end of him is much darker like a blackish color, its like 2 colors at times and its so noticeable, like half white half black... i dont think its the lighting.. ive had the tank for a little over a month and i my ammonia is always .5 no matter how many 50% water changes i do.. one time there was hardly any in it, but its always .5.. i know .5 isnt horrible, since guppies and white cloud minnows which i also have are hardy fish, but i still shouldnt have any.... i have no nitrites and ph is good.. i think it was 7.4


 
Have you gotten any nitrates yet? Sounds like your tank isnt fully cycled, which can cause the color changes through water parameter stress. 

Try smaller water changes every few days...say 15-20%...if the larger water changes arent helping and the levels remain low.


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## ruby716

LasColinasCichlids said:


> Have you gotten any nitrates yet? Sounds like your tank isnt fully cycled, which can cause the color changes through water parameter stress.
> 
> Try smaller water changes every few days...say 15-20%...if the larger water changes arent helping and the levels remain low.






I checked my ammonia today and it was 0.. i didnt check for nitrates but i had no nitrites last time i checked.. when a tank is fully cycled, all the readings will be 0 right? its only a 2.5 gallon tank, so thats why when I do water changes, I do 50%.. I'm gunna only do 50% once a week now because the ammonia is 0 so I don't think it needs that many changes


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## LasColinasCichlids

ruby716 said:


> I checked my ammonia today and it was 0.. i didnt check for nitrates but i had no nitrites last time i checked.. when a tank is fully cycled, all the readings will be 0 right? its only a 2.5 gallon tank, so thats why when I do water changes, I do 50%.. I'm gunna only do 50% once a week now because the ammonia is 0 so I don't think it needs that many changes


 
How many total fish do you have in the 2.5 gallon tank? (Two fancy guppies would be the max amount of fish I would keep in that size, as anything else would cause serious over load and overcrowd.)

Is there a filter on the tank? (A lot of people dont use filters on tanks this small, but guppies need filters.)

Did I read right, that there is a white cloud with the guppies? If so, white clouds like cooler water, so if the water is too warm, the white cloud is at risk. If the water is not heated, the guppies are at risk, as they need at least 76F. So I ask, is there a heater on the tank?

A tank fully cycles when ammonia and nitrite are reading at zero and your nitrates are somewhere close to 10-20ppm. A 2.5 gal should cycle fast...my 5 gal cycled in like a week, of course it has a 10 gal filter on it, live plants, and I used a bacteria booster.


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## ruby716

LasColinasCichlids said:


> How many total fish do you have in the 2.5 gallon tank? (Two fancy guppies would be the max amount of fish I would keep in that size, as anything else would cause serious over load and overcrowd.)
> 
> Is there a filter on the tank? (A lot of people dont use filters on tanks this small, but guppies need filters.)
> 
> Did I read right, that there is a white cloud with the guppies? If so, white clouds like cooler water, so if the water is too warm, the white cloud is at risk. If the water is not heated, the guppies are at risk, as they need at least 76F. So I ask, is there a heater on the tank?
> 
> A tank fully cycles when ammonia and nitrite are reading at zero and your nitrates are somewhere close to 10-20ppm. A 2.5 gal should cycle fast...my 5 gal cycled in like a week, of course it has a 10 gal filter on it, live plants, and I used a bacteria booster.



i have 4 fish and 2 ghost shrimp.. i wont be putting anything else more in it.. i have a video on the video section of my fish.. they all look very happy and seem to love the amount of space they have.. i dont have a filter on the tank but when i do water changes i dont use freezing cold water.. i use luke warm. the temp. of the water is prob around 72.... i have 2 white cloud minnows and 2 fancy tail guppies.. they are all very tiny fish but are doing very well.. ive had them for a little over a month already.. yes i have a filter in my tank..


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## ruby716

ruby716 said:


> i have 4 fish and 2 ghost shrimp.. i wont be putting anything else more in it.. i have a video on the video section of my fish.. they all look very happy and seem to love the amount of space they have.. i dont have a filter on the tank but when i do water changes i dont use freezing cold water.. i use luke warm. the temp. of the water is prob around 72.... i have 2 white cloud minnows and 2 fancy tail guppies.. they are all very tiny fish but are doing very well.. ive had them for a little over a month already.. yes i have a filter in my tank..



sorry**** my mistake, i meant to say no i dont have a heater on the tank, but yes i do have a filter


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## Amethyst123

Your tank is overstocked, or it will be when your fish grow up, if they aren't yet full grown. Your guppies alone need 3 to 5 gallons of water, depending on size and gender, and your minnows probably also need at least 3 gallons. I don't know about ghost shrimp, but for the fish alone you need a 10 gallon tank. Guppies get 2 - 3 inches, not counting their tails, with the females bigger. Also, if you have both male and female, you will end up with babies - lots of them, frequently. One of my guppies had 51 babies the other day. 

Also, you need a heater. Water temp is usually 2 to 4 degrees lower than room temp, so unless you keep your house around 80, your water will be too cold for your guppies. They are tropical fish, and they need water in the mid to upper 70s. 

Your ammonia needs to be at zero, period. Ammonia at .5 is too high, no matter how hardy your fish are, and guppies aren't that hardy these days. They've been hybridized too much to be as hardy as they are in the wild. 

By the way, it's hard to cycle a small tank and keep the water parameters even over time. You'd be better off to get at least a 10g tank and cycle it BEFORE you put your fish in. In the meantime, do large water changes regularly, like 50% twice a week. One way to be sure you are doing water changes frequently enough is to get an ammonia test kit (liquid tests are better than dip-strip), and test for ammonia every day. As soon as it reads above zero, change your water. 

As for your guppy changing colors - I have heard of a type of guppy that does change colors, called "spectrum" guppies. However, yours sounds like a half-black tux. I'd say you need to correct your tank issues - heat, water quality, and amount of water/space available, and worry about the apparent color changes later.


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## LasColinasCichlids

With the 2 fancy guppies...they actually only get to 1.5 inches. Two inches for a guppy makes it one of the larger specialty breeds, like the deltas. 

White clouds, again, are cold water, so the way you are handling your tank now is fine for them...but not the guppies. Guppies MUST have a heater, hun. They need at least 76F temps. Colder temps is asking for issues, including but not limited to ich, funguses, bacterias...and the colder water stresses them out, causes their colors to fade, and weakens their immune system making them twice as vulnerable to those diseases. 

To each his own on water change percentages, however, many will agree that smaller more frequent water changes are more beneficial over time. Even in a small tank, 20% once a week, or at times when nitrites and ammonia show up, is effective. 

I have never had an issue cycling a small tank and keeping it consistant with water parameters. My 5 gallon, once cycled, has been perfect without issues in fluctuation. I think just the opposite, the larger the tank, the harder it is to keep it under control. Just goes to show how much fish keeping really is a matter of opinion (outside of the science/chemistry that goes into water parameters). 

By the way, those ghost shrimp, not such a great idea. I recently discovered that they can be aggressive, and require 5 gallons of water per ghost shrimp in order to make their own territories. They also can eat smaller fish. 

An idea...leave the ghost shrimp and the white clouds in the unheated 2.5 gallon...and get a 5 or 10 gallon tank set up (with a heater!) for the guppies. Even in a 5 gallon, you can have 3-5 fancy guppies safely and happily. 

I fully believe your guppies color issue is from the lack of heater in the tank. 

Keep me posted, and let me know what you decide to do, or if you need help figuring out other solutions.


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## Amethyst123

I have fancy guppies that are very definitely bigger than 1.5 inches, and I'm not including the tails, so the tail type doesn't matter. I have female guppies that are 2 - 2.5" without their tails. The males are smaller, more like the 1.5, though I have one that is closer to 2", again without counting the tails. With the tails, my males are 2" or more, and some of my females are about 3". They are, however, the largest guppies I've seen. When I was a kid, I never saw a male more than 1.5" or a female more than 2" and most were even smaller ... but that was a million years ago when most guppies were still wild-type, or just beginning to be hybridized into today's fancy guppies. 

As for cycling and stability - When I said smaller tanks are harder to cycle and keep stable, I was talking about tanks in the 1-3g range, not 5g. I currently have 5 tanks - 47g, 14g, 2 @ 10g, and a 3g. The only one I have had difficulty keeping stable is the 3g. Once cycled, the others have been no problem. I guess our experiences have been different.


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## LasColinasCichlids

Amethyst123 said:


> I have fancy guppies that are very definitely bigger than 1.5 inches, and I'm not including the tails, so the tail type doesn't matter. I have female guppies that are 2 - 2.5" without their tails. The males are smaller, more like the 1.5, though I have one that is closer to 2", again without counting the tails. With the tails, my males are 2" or more, and some of my females are about 3". They are, however, the largest guppies I've seen. When I was a kid, I never saw a male more than 1.5" or a female more than 2" and most were even smaller ... but that was a million years ago when most guppies were still wild-type, or just beginning to be hybridized into today's fancy guppies.
> 
> As for cycling and stability - When I said smaller tanks are harder to cycle and keep stable, I was talking about tanks in the 1-3g range, not 5g. I currently have 5 tanks - 47g, 14g, 2 @ 10g, and a 3g. The only one I have had difficulty keeping stable is the 3g. Once cycled, the others have been no problem. I guess our experiences have been different.


I have never seen an aquaria kept *fancy* guppy get larger than 1.5"...as far as males go, and I think she said both of hers are male, and I would assume they are because most like them best for their colors. As far as different kinds of tails, I havent even seen any of those and dont keep them. I deal strictly with fancy and deltas. Deltas are a larger hybrid of fancies, my sunrise tequila guppies are deltas, and they are pushing 2 inches, which is their expected max size. 

I would expect wild guppies to be larger, as most fish taken from the wild and kept in aquaria do not reach their maximum size they would and do reach in the wild. Nor do they live as long.

I have kept guppies since I was a child too myself, and have never experienced a guppy that large. When I got into the deltas, I was shocked at how large they got, as I had never seen a 2 inch guppy. 

I assume on this subject we will have to agree to disagree, as I am sure maximum guppy size is up for debate, and there is always exceptions to the rule. 

As for the cycling of small tanks...that is TOTALLY up to experience, as some have issues either way, that one is just my opinion. The smallest tank I ever had was a 1 gallon, never had an issue with it after it cycled. Currently I have my 5 gallon so stable it scares me (in all honesty its more like a 4 gallon because I have an internal filter...tetra whisper 10i...and the water level has to be an inch below the filter lip for it to filter properly, thus taking proabably a good whole gallon out of my tank after considering the space for the filter drop already needed). 
My 29 is stable too, but I think the issue with larger tanks is that the filters made for them (referring to HOBs) arent made to keep up with that tank size, and I believe going up a size is needed. Example being most 30 gallon HOB filters do up to 150 gph, when I have learned that it needs to do 200 gph to run correctly for the tank...thus the reason I am battling an endless battle with cloudiness in my 29 gallon until I get paid again so I can switch the horrible Marineland BioWheel P.150 with an AquaClear 200/50. Sorry...I totally went in to babble mode, lol. 

I will say that my love for guppies is making me very mad! lol As I had hoped to only keep a few in my smaller tank and keep more exotic fish in my other tank, but some how ended up having almost the entire tank dedicated to guppies! I went from 4, to 6, to 9! Not that I havent had that many before or more, but it wasnt intended to go that far this time. Same with the mollies...wasnt suppose to have any, now I have 3 different variations of mollies. lol


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## ruby716

LasColinasCichlids said:


> With the 2 fancy guppies...they actually only get to 1.5 inches. Two inches for a guppy makes it one of the larger specialty breeds, like the deltas.
> 
> White clouds, again, are cold water, so the way you are handling your tank now is fine for them...but not the guppies. Guppies MUST have a heater, hun. They need at least 76F temps. Colder temps is asking for issues, including but not limited to ich, funguses, bacterias...and the colder water stresses them out, causes their colors to fade, and weakens their immune system making them twice as vulnerable to those diseases.
> 
> To each his own on water change percentages, however, many will agree that smaller more frequent water changes are more beneficial over time. Even in a small tank, 20% once a week, or at times when nitrites and ammonia show up, is effective.
> 
> I have never had an issue cycling a small tank and keeping it consistant with water parameters. My 5 gallon, once cycled, has been perfect without issues in fluctuation. I think just the opposite, the larger the tank, the harder it is to keep it under control. Just goes to show how much fish keeping really is a matter of opinion (outside of the science/chemistry that goes into water parameters).
> 
> By the way, those ghost shrimp, not such a great idea. I recently discovered that they can be aggressive, and require 5 gallons of water per ghost shrimp in order to make their own territories. They also can eat smaller fish.
> 
> An idea...leave the ghost shrimp and the white clouds in the unheated 2.5 gallon...and get a 5 or 10 gallon tank set up (with a heater!) for the guppies. Even in a 5 gallon, you can have 3-5 fancy guppies safely and happily.
> 
> I fully believe your guppies color issue is from the lack of heater in the tank.
> 
> Keep me posted, and let me know what you decide to do, or if you need help figuring out other solutions.





Hi, 

I actually think that it is a half black tux guppy, and the light affects his color. I'll put the light on in the morning and he looks more black, and then after a little while of the light being on he looks more half black. I only have 1 ghost shrimp and he doesnt bother the fish and the fish doesnt bother him. I haven't been doing a lot of water changes because the past 2 weeks I've had 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, the hardness was good, and my p.h. was 7.7 which is good. They all are happy and look to be doing great.. I do a water change maybe twice a week, like 25% of the water.. that's it. I am getting a bigger tank in a couple of months and I plan on moving the guppies to it.


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## redchigh

I think I might be able to resolve this issue on guppy size.

In pet stores and community tanks where guppies are mixed sex, they average 1 to 1.5 inches... Once they begin mating their growth slows, and in the female's case, nearly stops.

If they don't mate, and are fed high-protein diets (like they would get in the wild from insect larvae and such) then they do get much larger. 

Guppies do like vegetable matter, and even eat algae... I'm still certain most guppies don't get enough protein (I'm talking about live and frozen foods, not flake.)


As for the original topic, I would hope we don't get sidetracked, since there are good points on both sides.

Tank is too small, needs a heater (Heaters are cheap, they sell some for betta bowls that only raise the temp a few degrees. One of those would be fine.), needs to cut down on the ammonia.... Plants will help in the mean time. Get something like duckweed or amazon frogbit. I bet it would do fine without extra fertilisers, and would help with the ammonia problem until you can go get a new tank.
I realise most people can't go out and buy a tank on a whim, so plants will help for now. They also will make the fish feel more at home, so even if the stress is from an unknown source, it might still resolve the problem.


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## ruby716

redchigh said:


> I think I might be able to resolve this issue on guppy size.
> 
> In pet stores and community tanks where guppies are mixed sex, they average 1 to 1.5 inches... Once they begin mating their growth slows, and in the female's case, nearly stops.
> 
> If they don't mate, and are fed high-protein diets (like they would get in the wild from insect larvae and such) then they do get much larger.
> 
> Guppies do like vegetable matter, and even eat algae... I'm still certain most guppies don't get enough protein (I'm talking about live and frozen foods, not flake.)
> 
> 
> As for the original topic, I would hope we don't get sidetracked, since there are good points on both sides.
> 
> Tank is too small, needs a heater (Heaters are cheap, they sell some for betta bowls that only raise the temp a few degrees. One of those would be fine.), needs to cut down on the ammonia.... Plants will help in the mean time. Get something like duckweed or amazon frogbit. I bet it would do fine without extra fertilisers, and would help with the ammonia problem until you can go get a new tank.
> I realise most people can't go out and buy a tank on a whim, so plants will help for now. They also will make the fish feel more at home, so even if the stress is from an unknown source, it might still resolve the problem.



Well I haven't had any ammonia in my tank for a couple weeks now.... My tank is stable and all my water parameters are perfect... I have 2 fancy tail guppies and one of them is much bigger than the other.. I would say the orange tailed one from the tip to tail is 2 inches and the yellow tailed one is 1.5, but the orange one is so much fatter and thicker lol... they are so cute and so happy.. i really love fancy tail guppies a lot.. they all get along so cute and swim around all over the tank.. im not looking to get any real plants, theres no ammonia in the tank, and i want to put a real plant in the tank when i get a bigger one which will be in about a month..


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