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Are these Bunocephalus coracoideus shedding?
Fish 1:


Fish 2:


It seems they spend less time buried in the substrate than usual for the past 48 hours, but they appear "asleep" on top of the substrate. Fish 2 has darkened in color, while Fish 1 has gotten lighter in color. Fish 2's color has me a bit worried. They eat at night. You can see I should cut back their feedings. I think they even eat the snails in the substrate.

I believe I saw the shedding happen soon after I got these fish, but I could've been wrong. Does anybody know how often it's supposed to occur? Is it a stressful process for them, i.e. do I need to do more water changes during this time?
Amanda

It's hard to see from the pics, but skin molts for banjo cats are not stressful for the fish.

Thanks, Silurus. It's good to know this isn't stressful for them. I saw Dave Rinaldo's photos in the Cat-eLog. It looked a bit like that, with tufts coming off in certain regions. Taking photos of reluctant subjects isn't easy for me. I wait until they come out of hiding from the driftwood and plants. I don't like to disturb them. I'm keeping track in my journal of the dates when this happens. I find it interesting that they seem to do this at the same time. It's been about four months since the last occurance. They're back in hiding today. There are several nice pits in the substrate. I'll take that as a good sign.
Amanda