can tank lights affect the color of your fish - i ask because when i brough my green severums from the LFS they had nice dark colors but in my tank they have turned a dark cream in color however when one of them hides in his / her log the color almost seems to come back - the other one colored up a little bit when i got my gold sev but still not the same as when i bought them... also the stripes on my angels really only come out when the lights are off

ive got a arcadia freshwater ff15 lamp if that means anything to anyone ?

here are some pics of my fish




and this is how they use to look (pics from the net)
http://www.bromba.com/knowhow/Green_Severum.jpg
http://www.bharada.com/aquaria/125/125_wild_angels.jpg

Cheers
Skip

Both lighting and the colours in your tank will change the colours of your fish, and their mood too.
Light gravel will make the fish lighten, dark gravel will make them darker/more intense.

I had a common plec in a white bottom tank for a week, he went pale sandy brown, and the young killies in with him were pale and washed out. Chucked them in my other tank with black stones and the plec went black within a few hours, and the killies got darker and brighter. They adjust to their surroundings so if your fish is a noticably different colour in the log thats probably part of it.
Different types of light will bring out different colours in the fish - red, orange, yellow seem to show in any light, while the colours from the other types of colour cell (blue, green, gold foil, irridescence) are hugely affected by the colour levels in the light. They look best in sunlight, so if the sun comes in the windows of the room your tank is in, you can use a mirror to reflect it onto the tank to see if your fish are green in it.
The stripes on the angels are changed with their mood, mine are the same colour and i've watched them flick between almost white, then dark grey with 7 thick black stripes, to a gold and green colour with no stripes, to their normal 3-striped pattern, all within a few minutes. I haven't been able to figure out what they're saying with each colour change, but they show a more intense version of the normal stripe pattern when they are fed.
So - try sunlight, or a desk lamp with a normal lightbulb, and see how your fish look with that, then if its alot better try and find a new tube with the colour range to match. If not, look at adding more dark things to the tank, or accept that its their mood and they might darken once they've settled in more.

also, i've got vall growing in the back of my tank, and whenever they're in there my angels have their stripes showing dark, which is what they're there for - camoflages them with the vertical lines of the plants. They only change through the other patterns if they are out in the open, so that could be something else to try.

i haven't got any decent pics, but here's one of mine on its way to changing to white, and then changing to gold and blue

cheers - you pretty much just confirmed the light theory i had standard brown white and black stones in the bottom of the tank before but have now just changed to silica sand - but i dont think thats it !! I will try the different lights - come to think of it about 6 months ago i upgraded tanks from a 70L Hex with only angels and 1 severum in which i had a smaller light with a warmer color band and the color did stand out more esp in the sev - i will try the different colors and see how it turns out....now to find some bulbs i can steal from around the house..