What's wrong with bristlenose pleco?

[Jhelf12]

This guy started to change color to yellow about 2 weeks ago. He has been known to change colors based on mood, but nothing this drastic and not for this long, so I don't think it's mood. He eats normally and acts normal. What do you guys think??


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[Jools]

Some plecos do this from time to time, we don't really know why, it is not known to affect health.

Jools

[NCE12940]

Mine's done the same thing; obviously he's just fine as he's pigging out here as usual.

[jodilynn]

My "Lemondrop" and "Green Dragon" females will often develop those yellow patches on their bodies.

They are perfectly healthy (knock on wood), eating like horses and they are as active as BNs can be. I could never come up with a reason for when and why these color changes occur. But they are just fine .

I wouldn't worry about your fish, he looks happy and healthy to me.

[bekateen]

To all of you who've had BNs which went through this kind of color change, was the change permanent? Did your BNs look like this for the rest of their lives (do they still look like this if they're still alive)? Or do they go back to "normal" brown/black after a certain amount of time? If so, how long? And you're convinced it's not simply another kind of "stress coloration?"

[NCE12940]

Too early to tell with Sr. Paz. This is a fairly recent color change and I've only had him just short of a year. I'm sure though that he's not a happy camper these days - after 4 spawns I took him away from his girlfriends

[jodilynn]

Yes the color on my females goes back to "normal", the varying amounts of yellow come and go. Right now they are both back to being dark, i.e. my Green Dragon is a dark olive with yellow edging on her tail and my Lemondrop is dark brown with yellow spots and yellow on her tail.

Again, I have never been able to ascertain what makes them change colors or go back to "normal".

[bekateen]

This guy started to change color to yellow about 2 weeks ago.

Too early to tell with Sr. Paz. This is a fairly recent color change and I've only had him just short of a year.

Yes the color on my females goes back to "normal", the varying amounts of yellow come and go. Right now they are both back to being dark, i.e. my Green Dragon is a dark olive with yellow edging on her tail and my Lemondrop is dark brown with yellow spots and yellow on her tail.

The fact that your fishes change color for what sounds like weeks or months at a time says to me that this is a form of Morphological Color Change (long-term changes in essential body color which may or may not be reversible) rather than Physiological Color Change (e.g., rapidly occurring (and just as rapidly reversing) color changes, such as stress coloration, flash colors, etc.) If anyone is interested in a not-too-old article on the phenomenon of morphological color change in fishes, here is a good read:

1. Eric Leclercq, John F Taylor, & Hervé Migaud. 2010. Morphological skin colour changes in teleosts. Fish and Fisheries, Vol. 11, Issue 2, pp. 159–193. (you may be able to download the whole article HERE.)

ABSTRACT: Morphological skin colour change in fish is often referred to in the sole context of background adaptation. It is becoming increasingly apparent that it is a broad phenomenon elicited by a variety of factors. To date, no review has attempted to integrate the different types of morphological colour changes occurring in teleosts, their ecological origins and the regulatory mechanisms involved, often restricting the view on the subject. First, the origin of skin colour is addressed in teleosts including chromatophore type and distribution, pigment biosynthetic pathways and their interactions to one-another. Second, the different types of morphological colour changes occurring in teleosts are categorized and a key distinction is made between proximate and ultimate morphological colour changes. These are defined respectively as the change of phenotype during an established life-stage in response to environmental interactions and during the transition between two developmental-stages phenotypically pre-adapted to their ancestral ecosystems. Nutrition and UV-light are primary factors of proximate morphological colour changes beyond the control of the organism. By contrast, background light conditions and social interactions are secondary proximate factors acting through the control of the organism. Highly diversified among teleosts, ultimate morphological skin colour changes are presented in term of alterations in skin structure and pigment deposition during metamorphosis in different species. Finally, the physiological and endocrine mechanisms regulating both proximate and ultimate morphological colour changes are reviewed.

It's not recent, so I'm not going to put it in the taxonomy & science news forum. But if you want to read up on the subject, this is a good place to start. I won't lie, it's dense! I just wish I knew how the information in this paper could explain the specific changes in your fish.

Conversely, if you're more interested in the rapid color changes (Physiological Color Change), try this article:

1. Helen Nilsson Sköld, Sara Aspengren, & Margareta Wallin. 2013. Rapid color change in fish and amphibians – function, regulation, and emerging applications, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, Vol. 26, pp. 29-38. (DOI: 2010.1111/pcmr.12040).

ABSTRACT: Physiological color change is important for background matching, thermoregulation as well as signaling and is in
vertebrates mediated by synchronous intracellular transport of pigmented organelles in chromatophores. We
describe functions of and animal situations where color change occurs. A summary of endogenous and external
factors that regulate this color change in fish and amphibians is provided, with special emphasis on extracellular
stimuli. We describe not only color change in skin, but also highlight studies on color change that occurs using
chromatophores in other areas such as iris and on the inside of the body. In addition, we discuss the growing
field that applies melanophores and skin color in toxicology and as biosensors, and point out research areas with
future potential.

I was able to download both of these articles at home (not at school), so they should be free to download (although the first article can only be obtained from the second link, "Researchgate," which is not the publisher's site).

Cheers, Eric

[jodilynn]

Now my Lemondrop Ancistrus is doing the "large yellow blotch" thing and my Greendragon has returned to normal.

These blotches, from what I have been observing, only last a few days, go away for a few days, week(s), a month, then come back. No rhyme or reason to it that I can see.