Yellow Watchmen NOT Yellow?

[DxSOR25]

I just moved my yellow watchman from a nano tank to a biocube.. In the original tank he slowly was losing color and when i put him in the biocube he was like an off white color with like brown blotches. Is this cause hes stressed out? Will his color come back? The dots all over him are still blue and hes eating and swimming fine. Any ideas?

 

[Rhodes19]

I just moved my yellow watchman from a nano tank to a biocube.. In the original tank he slowly was losing color and when i put him in the biocube he was like an off white color with like brown blotches. Is this cause hes stressed out? Will his color come back? The dots all over him are still blue and hes eating and swimming fine. Any ideas?

It could be stress. My ywg did the same thing when I first got him for my BC 14 about 2 years ago. It took about 3-4 weeks but his color eventually returned. To be on the safe side check your water parameters and make sure they are all ok. Is anyone else in there with him?

 

[GlassMunky]

I've seen many "Yellow" wachmens that are not yellow, but white. but they have all been in the LFS so that may have been related to the stress of moving as well. not sure about the spots though, that sounds wierd.....

 

[Val]

Could be a nutrition problem.

 

[Reefmack]

I've seen a few yellow watchman that were more of a light brown than yellow, with brown splotches on the sides. May just be stress related.

 

[Val]

I've seen a few yellow watchman that were more of a light brown than yellow, with brown splotches on the sides. May just be stress related.

I can see that happening, mine is yellow and has no spots. It wouldn't hurt to look into all aspects, water quality and nutrition.

 

[theDeedo]

Mine is yellow and still have not seen him since the day I put him in the tank...over a month ago :invisible

 

[Val]

Mine is yellow and still have not seen him since the day I put him in the tank...over a month ago :invisible

Mine did the same thing, they are timid fish. I see him now when I feed and a few times daily. He's not an out in the open fish. I kept watching for ammonia spikes...lol thought mine had died at first.

 

[theDeedo]

Yeah same here. I thought I see a shadowy figure moving around in there the other night, but no conformation,

I have over 150lbs of well established live rock, I would not even know if he died, because there would be no ammonia spike. So one day I may find a skeleton under some rocks if I decide to break it down.

 

[DxSOR25]

this yellow watchman is a tropper..i bought him injured already hoping to save his life and i got a great deal. Hes been living in my tank for almost 5 months and doing fine. When i bought him he actually had a broken jaw or something and its healed almost perfect now. But he was yellow. Im am hoping its just stress and the color will come back. I will test all my levels now..

Here is the link to the fish when i first got him

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/saltwater-fish/59312-yellow-watchman-red-mouth.html

 

[Uslanja]

Hi DxSOR25! We have a yellow watchman that had a brilliant yellow colour with the brightest blue diamond spots. We moved him to the fuge with lower lighting and he paled out, almost a grey looking. We have since moved him to our nano with T5's and his colour is returning after approximately 2 months. That has been our experience for whatever it's worth.

 

[DxSOR25]

hey Uslanja i think your idea is the most likely.. The reason i believe this is because he was bright when purchased.. and ive had him in a tank with just regular lighting for freshwater becuse it was fowlr so it didnt matter.. i just moved him to the biocube and i know it sounds crazy but from when i posted this last night until now.. i feel like hes slowly returning to color.. this guys been through a lot.. gotta give him a name still.. probably something to do with all hes been through lol..

anyone got any ideas for names for this tough lil booger!?

 

[Uslanja]

Hi DxSOR25! Good to learn that your little guy is colouring up! We'll be following along to learn what you name him!

 

[DxSOR25]

here are some pics of his faded color! still eats great and is very lively!
SORRY NOT THE CLEAREST PICTURES BUT YOU CAN SEE WHAT I MEAN..

 

[Uslanja]

Hi DxSOR25! Your guy is looking healthy, just a little faded. Our guy was the same way when we moved him from the fuge back into the tank. But his colour returned after a couple of months. Your little guy has a very nice diamond patterning on him! His colour will come back under the brighter lights. Nice photos!!

 

[DxSOR25]

yeah on the last pic u can see his blue dots are very nice.. and his bottom fin is very blue! onces his yellows back he will look great.. i really need a new camera lol

 

[ALreefer]

I think it has to do with lighting as well. I used to have one that must have enjoyed it better in the sump than in the tank because every time I would put him back in the DT he would find his way back down into the sump. Whenever it was in the main tank it would be very brightly colored yellow with bright blue spots, but when I would catch it in the sump it would look just like yours, like a translucent white color. It would take it less than an hour to get its color back. Mine finally found a nice spot at the very bottom of the overflow where it lived for nearly a month before I decided to take it back to the LFS and let somebody get it that could maybe actually enjoy it.

 

[Uslanja]

Hi ALreefer! Maybe we purchased your fish! The guy we had would keep riding down to the fuge, so we finally left him there until we moved him out to THE 23. I think your right, they enjoy the ride!

 

[DxSOR25]

hahaha i had a YWG and a purple firefish that loved taking the ride down to the sump.. sadly that tank crashed while i was on vacation

 

[chshwong]

Don't worry about it PM.

When I moved my YWG from my 30 to my 55, the same thing happened the first 2 nights. Then it was good again. It was actually much whiter.

It happened ago recently after a i added lots of new live rocks and tankmates. It's back to normal after 2 days.

So I think it's regular behaviour from environmental change.