Lightly Medicated | Tricolor Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare)

What “Lightly Medicated” means

This is the same animal as our non-quarantined listing, held briefly in our systems and given one short prophylactic course — a light treatment for ich and for internal and external worms — then observed eating in front of us before it goes home.

A light course knocks the parasite load down. It does not guarantee full removal, and we will not pretend otherwise. Ich is only killed in its free-swimming stage, and a short treatment window can miss cysts entirely; worm burdens can survive a single dose. Clearing an animal takes the full quarantine window — 40 to 90 days depending on the species — which is exactly what the Quarantined listing is for. This tier buys you a lower parasite load and a fish we have watched eat, not a cleared animal.

We condition the fish on our end. Every animal we medicate is brought back onto prepared food on our own systems and is eating before it leaves — in practice it is rare for a lightly medicated fish to ship out and arrive sick. Do the same at your end: get it eating in your aquarium before you count it settled.

When it ships

Plan on 3–5 days on our systems for the treatment course, and it does not leave until it is eating. If the animal is not already in our systems we source it first — allow up to two weeks for it to reach us before that clock starts. From the day you order, plan on roughly two and a half weeks in total.

The guarantees

• Shipped orders: 24-hour live guarantee from confirmed delivery.
• In-store pickup: 7-day live guarantee — bring a water sample from your aquarium so we can test it before your livestock goes home with you.

Want the full program — treated, observed, confirmed eating, and covered for 28 days on pickup? That is the Quarantined listing. Run your own quarantine and just want the fish this week? The non-quarantined listing is cheaper still. The whole ladder is explained in Quarantined vs Non-Quarantined.

Tricolor Angelfish is a descriptor for the marble, multi-tone, and mixed Pterophyllum scalare strains that carry three distinct pigment expressions — typically some combination of silver, black, and orange or gold — distributed across the body in patterns that vary considerably between individuals. It’s a catch-all for the non-solid, non-standard-stripe strains, and part of the appeal for people who collect them is that no two fish end up quite identical even from the same spawn.

In a planted community, this variability reads as visual interest rather than inconsistency — a small group of tricolor angels moving together shows a range of markings that makes the school look like a single dynamic unit rather than a stamped-out pattern repeated five times. They establish loose schooling behavior when young, which gives you a window into both their schooling and their cichlid sides before pairs form and territorial behavior kicks in.

The biology under the coloring is consistent across all angelfish strains: tall, laterally compressed cichlids from slow Amazonian water, built for sliding between dense vegetation. They work well in planted communities, pair naturally as they mature, and bring real cichlid personality to a tank that might otherwise be all schooling fish with no individual character.

Scientific name: Pterophyllum scalare (tricolor/multi-marble strain)
Origin: Amazon River basin, South America
Water parameters: Temp 76–86°F · pH 6.0–7.5 · Soft to moderately hard water
Tank requirements: 30 gal minimum; tall tank preferred
Diet: Omnivore — quality flake and pellet supplemented with frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp
Compatibility: Peaceful community when young; semi-territorial once paired
Husbandry note: Tricolor and marble patterns tend to shift and develop as the fish ages — a lightly patterned juvenile often becomes dramatically more complex by 12–18 months. The pattern you see on day one is not the final pattern.