sucker fish/alge eater

Question
I have a 40 gallon tank with two redear sliders and a black suckerfish. I just got it the other day and i totally cleaned the tank (it was my nephews') and put new water (along with the fizz tablets for tap water treatment) in the tank. Well today I added a large pitcher of warm water to the tank and now my sucker fish has spots and is a lighter color (he was black). Is this something I need to worry about? He's acting normal, but his color (along with the spots) have me worried.

Answer
Hi Shaun;

He may be stressed from being moved and/or just from having to live with turtles. Turtles eat fish as a natural part of their diet and if he has been chased around by them at all, it would cause him to freak out a bit. Turtle tanks are notoriously filthy too. Fish often can't survive it for very long. Fish really depend on consistently good water quality to stay healthy and happy so he will need his tank cleaned a couple of times a week. Otherwise he may not do well over the long run. It gets dirty quickly, then really clean, then dirty again and need a lot of water changed all at once...just too much stress for most fish. They need consistency and stability in their environment. With a regular aquarium you would change 25% of the water once a week and it usually doesn't get very dirty in between. It's more consistent in water quality and chemistry. These issues are why I personally don't recommended keeping fish with turtles.

It's important that the water temperature is consistent too. If it fluctuates at all, that alone will cause an algae eater to turn lighter. Algae eaters need a temperature of about 76f all the time. If the tank doesn't stay about that with a fluctuation of no more than about 3 degrees in 24 hours, put in a submersible aquarium heater if you don't have one already. If you do have one and the temp fluctuates too much, it isn't working properly or it isn't enough wattage for the water volume.

I hope he's okay...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins