Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,
Some of my fingerlings have faded. They no longer have the dot and tell tale striped of talipia. Is this some sort of sickness or is it because they don't get much sun light?

Has nothing to do with sun light. My fish have not seen sun light in their life.

Have you salted your fish tank water yet?

It took me awhile to remember but they lose their color when stressed I think. What is the water temp and other parameters?

I've been raising blue nile tilapia for quite a while now. They are the only ones I have experience with, so I will refer to them. I had them in a rather big aquarium system, watching them all the time, so I got used to their habits. When they lose their stripes it's exactly because they are not stressed. The dot fades when they are old enough for breeding. When they are stressed, either because of cold or because they are being chased out of a certain breeding area by another tilapia, they can get quite dark and very, very darkly striped. They change colors all the time, quite quickly, based on environment. When a male who is the "alpha" decides to breed and there is a willing female, the male will get brilliantly colored, lots of black and red on the fins, some have the entire face turn black. It's actually quite beautiful.

The first of the fingerlings who lose color tend to the be "alpha" fish (for lack of a better term). They're not stressed, because they are the ones bossing everyone around and no one is bugging them. Unless they look sickly, I wouldn't worry about it.