Why? help!

[ThatDarnDragon]

Im sure you guys read the story about my yellow-tailed damsel.

this morning when I woke up, it was about turning white again. Still swimming around and eating, but if it turned white again, its not gunna survive, is it? Can you help me to make it all better? (providing if it survives when I get home from work..)

My water tested fine.

*Update* a few mins later, it got some blue back, but not 100%. please tell me it'll be pale in the morning when it wakes up like people sometimes are pale first thing in the morning!

 

[Navarre]

Fish usually lose alot of colour during the night. they move the bloodflow deeper into the body and thus they go very pale. When thelights go on it takes a short time to recirculate their bloodflow.

My Purple Tang is practically blue when the lights go on.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

*phew* thanks Nav. I came home from work and its a beautiful deep shade of blue again.

so its nothing to worry about. scared me, I was gunna cry too! lol

 

[Fishy411]

u could do morning lights and put it on a cycle. Like weaker lights that go on for 8-9 and than yur regular lights the whole day an dthan an hour before u go to bed put the weaker lights back on.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

thats an idea, fishy. would it be healthier for the fish, or it wouldnt really matter? The tank's in my bedroom and I cant sleep with light! lol

 

[tragikmagik]

I say dont leave a light on if you dont want to. I had the same thing happen to me with my damsels in the past. Also i have seen that my snowflake eel will end up hiding in the live rock all day and when he comes out the yellow is gone exept for his head that he has sticking out all day...kinda wierd all white and black. I just try to turn a lamp on or some other kinda ambeint light on for a while before turning on the tank lights...GL

 

[Great Lakes]

What is your lighting schedule?
A litle longer period may decrease the loss of color in the of hours.

I have "day" lighting on for roughly 15 hours.

Sometimes temp will have this effect also. I had a tank drop to about 68 degrees once and noticed a marked difference in color.
I mention this in case you are one of those folk that run a temp of 72 or so, and with a faulty thermometer a couple of degrees can make a vast difference.

GL

 

[Fishy411]

thats an idea, fishy. would it be healthier for the fish, or it wouldnt really matter? The tank's in my bedroom and I cant sleep with light! lol

it simulates a real environment more. Do u have moonlights on yur tank?

 

[TBLightningFan]

Mine does the same thing. Usually just the tail will go white. But the yellow returns within a few minutes.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

I turn the lights off an hour before i go to bed (around 11) so it has some light when I read for an hour, and I turn the lights on an hour after I get up, so it has some light before I turn the tank lights on (dont want to shock them)

I dont have a 'moon light', though I do have a small blue night light near it that I use to have some light. they are never in pitch dark (cept when I forget to turn the nightlight on.. oops)

 

[Fishy411]

usually6 fish are pale in the mornig but it shouldnt take very long to get the color back. Maybe you should think about getting a small reading light to aim at the tank in the morning. I know my Raphael turns white sometimes when he is really stressed. Once i turned the light around 12 ( stupid ) and every inch of flesh ( bot counting his armor ) was completely white. I turned the tank light off and turned on our cieling light and he started to get color back and he was fine in the morning.