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Hi all, first post here!

I added three Sterbai to my tank about six months ago. They settled in really quickly and are brilliant fun. However I always thought that they looked a bit dark in colour compared to photos of Sterbai on the internet. Their colour is as though there's more of the dark on them than the light bits, if that makes sense!

Yesterday I added two more Sterbai to my tank. These ones are a bit bigger than the original three and their colour is really vibrant, like they normally are in photographs.

The original three were tiny when they went in and still aren't mature. Is the dark colouration due to their immaturity? Or is it just genes?

Water parameters are Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate always below 10, pH 7.5, temp 25. They're fed every night on either red astax crumb, shrimp pellets, Hikari sinking wafers or frozen blood worm. So I don't think it should be their environment or diet that's keeping them dark.

Any ideas? I love them no matter what the colour but I would prefer them to be more vibrant in colour.

Thanks

Welcome to planet catfish!!

what kind of substrate do u have?
i thinkg the dark coloured stones wood etc, might be causing it to go darker because its just slowly adapting to the environment
or they could just be different species which i highly doubt but im not really a cory man:lol:

The substrate is black sand. I don't think it's a case of them changing colour as they were that colour when they went in. Their fins are orange as is normal with sterbai.

Do you mean dark colouration like this? http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=3801

If so, its normal. I have a couple of adults with darker than usual colouration, dont know the exact cause (ie pecking order with amongst the group). But quite possibly its just a colouration variant.

Thanks Hitch, yes very similar to that. Although mine have even smaller silver markings, so that they are predominantly the darker shade throughout. As you say it must just be a varient of some kind, in which case I would guess that it's not something that will change as they reach maturity.

dj-don makes a point, however: The colour of the substrate will change the colour of the fish - they do "adapt" their colour based on substrate colour.

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Mats

If the fish is acting healthy in every respect then the color difference may just be an anomaly or a temporary condition.
Here are juveniles over a dark substrate.