Please not again !!

[Welsh]

I woke this morning to find my little Sorbet a bit peaky, his colour has faded from Raspberry to more of a Vanilla with a little strawberry sauce. Why would his colour fade? His tank is as heavily planted as it can get, its heated and filtered with an LED light. The temp has been between 85 and 87 these last few days as the weather has been scorching but iv turned the heater down and the temp is now back to 80.

[cmndrJOE]

How are your water params? Are you treating the water?

[Welsh]

I havent checked the water yet, might go do that now.

[Welsh]

Everything is fine except Ammonia which is 1.0ppm. I havent changed the water since I put him in there last Thursday

[cmndrJOE]

How "overplanted" is your tank? Showing any stress stripes?

[gahcrazy]

I would change the water. it's only a suggestion. I had one rescue that had simler problems with fadeing. Even though these Fish are hardy they still do much better in water thats kept clean.. like 0.ppm by the way, how old is Sorbert?

[cmndrJOE]

She just got sorbet a few days ago from aquabid if I remember correctly. Right Welsh?

[gahcrazy]

I've never got a fish through the mail before. so the reason i am telling you this that there is other people here that have experence with this type of thing. So hold on and wait till someone with experence in this area is able to help you. ok?

[Oldfishlady]

Ammonia 1ppm can be harmful to the fish, make a water change until it goes down to at least 0.25ppm, also in some bettas the high temp can be an added factor along with the high ammonia.
Once your plants start to actively grow they should start to use the ammonia for food before it can reach levels harmful to the fish

Also, 2.4g tank needs twice weekly water changes until the plants start to actively grow, I would monitor the ammonia daily and make needed water changes for ammonia 0.25ppm or greater until then...

what kind of plants and what is your wpg....

[xxabc]

+1 to OldFishLady

If your tank temperatures are that high, do something to keep it down. I'm in super-hot weather too but I put a fan next to my tank. And when I'm home, I monitor the temps and float a bag of ice on top (only as prevention to keep it from going up - I don't put in ice from 85 and bring it down to 80, only to let it go back to 85 again. The heater keeps it at minimum/maximum 77 when I leave the ice there. Once at 76 I take the ice out and once at 77 I put it back in).