Indo Dat is finally stable!

Finally after owning this guy for about 8 months I've got him stable. Looks so much better

I had 4 dats in one tank (this one being the biggest) and all of them were unstable. I moved this guy into a 170 gallon with no other dats and no really good hiding spots and he turned stable shortly after the move. However, as soon as I tried to put my other larger dat in with him, he turned brown and was very territorial towards the other dat. As soon as I moved the other dat back, he turned stable again.

There's a big debate/controversy over what causes a datnoid to be unstable. Unstable is referring to thier colours being distorted and stripes not being as prominent. Sometimes they go darker or lighter. I think that depends on their environment. The ones on white sand turn really white when they are unstable and the ones on the black sand or in shadow are darker. Could just be coincidence, but I'm thinking it's more to due with them trying to blend in with their surroundings when they feel stressed or irritated.

Thanks. When I first got them, my smallest one was stable all the time and I had about 10 in the 170 gallon. The smallest one was from the pet store and the others were from a private sale. The smallest one was out all the time (even though there was tons of hiding spots), attacked the largest fish, and came to the front of the tank whenever I was around. Ever since I moved the 3 of them to the smaller tank he hides all the time and is stable on and off. Just one of those strange things I guess.

It pretty thick actually. I feed a mix of cut up market shrimp, krill, bloodworms and mysis shrimp. I'm going to try to convert all my fish to massivore and hikari floating over the summer.

This picture might be a better angle. He doesn't face the camera directly very often lol

This picture is from when I first got him.

This one is him unstable.