PlanetCatfish.com

This is a photo of my recently rescued pleco. He(she?) suddenly started changing colour this weekend, with very pale stripes and spots on the body. At first I thought he was sick, but the patches are almost perfectly symmetrical. He's about 10 inches long.

What causes this? The previous owner of this fish had never seen such colour change, he's always been black. The colour change goes from subtle to very striking, in seconds and later he goes back to normal.

Could this have been triggered by the stress of moving? Is it a normal plec thing?
I've searched on usenet, and all I can really find is that the change is according to mood, but I'm not sure if that means the pleco is upset, or just that he feels like changing.

Jo
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It looks like your fish is changing color in response to the substrate (many fish are capable of doing that). Was it in a tank with a darker colored substrate before?
A change in the water conditions is another possibility.

i too have found that plecos can change their coloration according to their surroundings/mood/lighting...although i would never count out stress...make sure hes eating fine and i would think youre in the clear so long as he shows no other tell tale signs of pleco demise...ie sunken eyes or belly, also check if his breathing is normal...but i think silurus is correct...he looks healthy he is prob adapting to new surroundings

ben

Both my Gibby's do this colour change thing as well. You notice it more as they move from wood to substrate then they change colour. Mine seem to take on that banded look just like yours do. As stated above if the fish looks healthy dont worry about the colour change too much. Stress tends to make mine go very pale which is different.
jason

He seems ok, he does tend to change colour when disturbed, but I'm not watching him all day, so I don't really know how often it's happening. The water conditions have changed, he came from a tank which wasn't maintained well, and not at all in the last 6 months or so. He's been fed on floating pond pellets for 5 years, so I'm trying to bring him onto better food, but it's quite difficult as he doesn't seem to know what plants are!
(which is a bit sad.)

Ah well, I guess he's just adapting. Thanks for all your advice, much appreciated.

Jo

There is a post somewhere here about feeding plecos. But deffinitely try sinking algae wafers. I use Hikari but there are many other makes about. Your fish does seem a bit thin, try courgette as well cut it and anchor a piece to some driftood or a rock and leave it in the tank for 24 hors then replace. It may take a while to get him eating properly but dont fret be persistent and he'll improve.
jason