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Hello all! First off, I am a brand new member so I apologize in advance if I have posted this in the improper way or in the wrong place. It’s not my intent to make waves here! (Ha ha)

Secondly, I’d love some feedback on one of our baby Bristlenose and a color change. I think he/she (we call it a he for now) believes they are an Angelfish...I know, I know... hear me out though. He’s actually turning a golden yellow like our baby Angelfish, who are yellow and black marbled.

We spotted him in our main community tank (75 gallon) when he was maybe half an inch, about 2 months ago and added him to the Angels nursery tank so we could enjoy watching him grow more closely. (It’s a 20 gallon) He’s about an inch now, very active, has plenty of hiding places, doesn’t seem stressed and eats well. When we initially found him he was predominantly black/gray and about a week after being in the nursery tank, he started changing to yellow, where he was the lighter gray. He’s continued to grow brighter and brighter yellow. Anyone else have experiences with such a dramatic color change in their Bristlenose to seemingly match tank mates?

He has an older sibling named OG that’s maybe 3 months older than he is and has stayed the standard gray/black with a bit of white on the fins. OG is in a 3rd tank (35 gallon) and we took half of our baby Angels and added them to his tank about a week ago so they’d all have more room. I’m definitely curious if OG will start to yellow to match his new tank mates.

I’ve attached a picture of the yellowing little guy, as well as his parents, Gomez and Morticia. (AL Fishino the Silver Dollar loves to photobomb!)

Thank you so much for any feedback and I’m looking forward to connecting with and learning from you all.

Hi CreatureLover,

Color changes are pretty common.

Is there a difference in the lighting or in the color of your gravel in the tanks? That can often explain color changes.

Cheers, Eric

Eric, thank you for responding. From my limited experience (I’d definitely consider myself a beginner) and various things I’ve read, I knew they could change shades to match substrate...but couldn’t find much on such a drastic change in colors. Everything was pretty vague that I’ve come across. Our community tank and the tank that OG are in both have the blue gravel pictured and the nursery tank is bare bottom (for ease of cleaning), aside from some rocks that are the same type as are in our community tank. Our community tank and nursery tank (where the yellowing little guy lives) both have LED and get blue light time too. The tank OG is in has an older fluorescent bulb and doesn’t get blue light time, something that we’ll be updating soon.

Thanks!
Creature.