Anthia's color

[jbanman14]

Hi,

Was hoping i could get some help here. 3 weeks ago I bought a pair of bartlett anthias from another member. When i showed up they were very pale, essentially white. Other than this they looked healthy though, nice and fat. He assured me that they had only been eating pellets for a bit and proper nutrition would bring the colors back. I have been feeding reef frenzy, rods, mysis and new life pellets and they have a little more color but pretty much still white. Is this common and does it just take them a long time to color back up or is it a sign of old fish or something that they're stuck with? Or anything that i can to do help their color?

Thanks for the help,
James

 

[SynDen]

Colors can take quite a while to return if they have been stressed enough to loss them. Keep them well fed and slowly they may come back over the next 3-6 months. I recived a group of lyretails several years ago that were similar. They were skinny and pale colored. It took many months but eventually they gained weight and then slowly began to color up again.

 

[jbanman14]

Okay, that helps. Was hoping it wasn't a permanent thing. Thanks.

 

[jda123]

They will get more color if there are males in with females and females in with males. If they are eating, then I would not sweat it too much.