Can stress affect colour?

FishN00b

I have 3 orange platties in a 200 litre tank with 3 sword tails (1 male 2 females) and 4 white spotted tetras.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0(ish)
Nitrate 5
PH 7.5

Chemistry is nearly perfect as far as I'm concerned so I dont think thats the problem.

These little tetras were put in this big tank as they terrorised the neons and lamp eyes in my 70l tank. The 70l tank is so serene to watch now.

To my surprise, these 4 tetras are chasing the platties and sword tails around the tank. I couldn't believe it as the platties and sword tails are much bigger.

The problem is, the orange platties are getting white patches on their body and their tail is discolouring. The dorsal fin is down too?

Could this be down to stress of being chased all the time? I'm thinking of taking these tetras back to the shop and asking them to take them back free of charge, they're such a pain !

Any help is greatly appreciated

fish_4_all

Well it could be from the stress of the fish very easily but white patchesa makes me worry that it is something else, possibly much worse. It sounds as if the stress could have caused an infection or the new fish might have come in with something that has infected the other fish.

mHeinitz57

I agree, it sounds like you possibly have a fungal infection or possibly Ich. Ich looks like little grains of salt on the fishes body. If it is Ich then the whole tank needs to be treated somehow. With a lot of "nippy" fish like the tetras you have, sometimes it can be remedied by adding more of them. I know that sounds strange but I know with tiger barbs (the infamous fin-nippers) when there is only a few of them, they tend to lash out at other fish. When there is a larger school, usually 6 or more, they just chase eachother around and leave the other fosh alone. Size doesnt always matter with fish. You could try adding more of the tetras or I would try to bring them all back. If you think your other fish got infected though, I would tell that to the local fish store when you bring them back so that they quarantine them. Can you describve the white patches a little more?