# Dark film on Cichlid



## Buddy (Jun 7, 2012)

Hi there, 

We noticed that a brown type film was starting to show up on the yellow labs. It's shows up more around their faces area but also on their body. It's hard to see, but you can see that they aren't a bright yellow as the brown dulls the yellow quite a it. 

Any idea what this might be and what we should be doing? Any help is appreciated.


Thanks!


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

not 100% on this, but it could just be the strain. Yellow labs have been bred by EVERYONE. a lot of people werent keeping strong enough gene lines and we have a lot of brownish looking yellow labs, lots with black marrings and so forth. Crisp clean yellow labs of a nice strain are a little harder to find. 

Have you tried googling it? or ask around next time you're in your local fish store


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

I had the same issue with my last batch of labs. picked up some from a few different people, and only 2 of the group i had aquired were the nice crisp yellow ones. 

Smalled labs tend to look great. it's only when they mature you see the colouration come through on them. 

I've switched to white labs now lol. was pretty hard to come across a nice set of breeders for them too!


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

it's called "bearding". Generally the most dominant one gets it. It's actually normal, it's just that it's been bred out a lot.

My old dominant male...also had very black fins


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

There's a good reply for you! my best two were gorgeous. all yellow with top and side fins black. unfortunately most of the females i had started getting black barring...

So to replace the yellow in my tanks i picked up Msobo's


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## Buddy (Jun 7, 2012)

Thanks for the responses!

The change isn't the colouring of the fish. The dark film is on the fish. It can be scrapped off.

They were all bright yellow and had texbook black markings and they all developed this at the same time shortly after a new fish was added that had a parasite infection which has since been resolved. It doesn't look like a fungle infection which leaves bacterial. So I started treating them with antibiotics. Four days in and their is a substantial improvment. They are starting to brighten up already and now are much more active. Several days ago they were actually starting to loose their appetite. Going to treat for a few more days and then see how it goes.

This is the only thing that seems like it makes sense as the film on them actually has the same tint to the algae that is growing in the tank.

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/koipond/fungal_disorders.html


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