Hey all,
to help with my newly acquired hair algae, I picked up a lawnmower blenny today. Everything looked great, he ate well at the store and was responsive to me. During acclimation he did fine as well. However, as soon as I put him into the tank he sht off like a rocket ino the rock work and disappered. He was gone for about an hour and when he emerged he was no longer grey. All of the sdden he was black with white spots. The spots come a go. He is eating hair algae already, so I am to to concerned about his nutrition. he is also getting a small amount of vitamin enriched nori. Is this color change normal? Also, he is not hopping around much. he is mainly laying and eating every now and then. Is everything alright, or should I be worried. I know the lawnmower looks a lotte like a lizard, but I know I didn't buy a chameleon. Why is he changing color?
__________________ - Eddy
"Corals require an aquarium, seawater at the right temperature and salinity, waterf flow, light, food, bicarbonate/buffer, and calcium. Period. No other equipment, apparatus, magic potions, pills, voodoo, prayer, or other sacrafices are necessary." -Eric Borneman
yes lawnmowers are chameleons. the color change is not encouraging, because they rarely mute their colors when happy. give it some time, keep an eye on it, and check out your water parameters.
what is it? when a fish is stressed is the pigmentation cells squeezed causeing the effect!?
i'm not sure, but that was my interpretation. lawnmowers can go pitch black to almost white. the mottled pattern we see is the normal phase. at their happiest, there is actually some reddish highlights around the eyes, cheeks, and the outer edge of their dorsal fins.
my guy, rygel, took a couple of weeks to become comfortable with his new home.....he doesn't eat algae at all, at least none that grows in the tank
as far as the color change goes....he changes based on where he is sitting in the tank...if he is on the dark red rocks, he is dark dark brown/grey....if he is sitting on the white rock, he is a lighter brownish grey
i suppose i could be wrong, but he sure seems happy to me....i can almost hand feed him
__________________ Wendy
___________________________ " Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine."...Buddha
color changes are not uncommon
cant speak to the blenny but it sounds like it needs to acclimate longer to the tank. this is not uncommon either. as wendy stated it can take weeks for them to fully acclimate
foxface fish often change from yellow to brown and white, yellow tangs often get dark and light blotches in them, these are normal thing, but in these cases usually only happen at night when sleeping
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i read that the tang changes color because their respiratory system slows way down at night......it is a kinda protection against preditors....they don't look as tasty w/ less color
__________________ Wendy
___________________________ " Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine."...Buddha
i read that the tang changes color because their respiratory system slows way down at night......it is a kinda protection against preditors....they don't look as tasty w/ less color
yep.. my Naso would change from solid brown to grey with white poke-a-dots..
however, my hippo tang just seems to get a bit lighter.. dont really notice much of a change in him, but i usually cat see him when hes sleeping
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see, what i would like to know is how they do it consistantly, i have 2 mangroves that display different colours to each other now! funny thing is they change to mood as well, but always revert back to status mode! its got to muscles contorting the pigment cells in the most comfortable way possible for the fish, cause u'd think keeping it up for massive time periods would be exhasting!
well, today he is not a lighter red. Atleast he is not pitch black. I think he is calming down a bit. Scared me there. I didn;t know about the color shifiting magic trick. That freaked me out. Its good to see he eating. The water quality is right where it should be for the moment so we will see if he every gets beack his usualy shades.
__________________ - Eddy
"Corals require an aquarium, seawater at the right temperature and salinity, waterf flow, light, food, bicarbonate/buffer, and calcium. Period. No other equipment, apparatus, magic potions, pills, voodoo, prayer, or other sacrafices are necessary." -Eric Borneman
Well, he died today I came home from work on my lunch break and I couldn't find him forever. THen, I spotted his tail in a small cave. I had to pull all of my rock work apart to get to him. Poor guy. After looking at him now, I think he had an internal parasite. He was very bloated around the neck area.
As for my blue tang, should I be worried if the lawnmower did have an internal parasite? He was in the tank for two days and was pulled out within 8 hours of dying.
__________________ - Eddy
"Corals require an aquarium, seawater at the right temperature and salinity, waterf flow, light, food, bicarbonate/buffer, and calcium. Period. No other equipment, apparatus, magic potions, pills, voodoo, prayer, or other sacrafices are necessary." -Eric Borneman
Why is he changing color?
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Well, he died today
