# Bleeding Heart Tetra Color Change



## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

I have a school of 5 bleeding Heart Tetras in my 55g, today I noticed that two of them are darker than they have usually been they went from a dirty light tan to a dark soil color, I have had cichlids in the past and those change color often (mating, stress, hunger, etc), Is that what's going on with my tetras or is this a disease of some sort?


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## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

Correction *

One of them is really dark, the other is just slightly darker than the rest, is he sick? or just being a dominant male or something


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Sounds like breeding color change. Are they showing any different behaviors, such as circling each other, or swimming along side each other quickly? Are they "flaring" their fins to each other? Many such tetras colors will darken and get very rich (ruby barbs come to mind, while not tetras, the color change can be quite drastic from breeding to non-breeding colors.) 
I don't know of any "disease" that makes fish get darker in color, that tends to be a health issue only. DULLING colors can mean illness, but just darker not necessarily.
Let us know how they are!


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## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

they're good, the darker of the two that got darker (if that makes sense) is just kinda swimming around on his own, the lighter one is still schooling with the other normal color ones


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