I scare the colours out of my bichirs (literally)

[Spiritofthesoul]

Ok I did a 90% water change today as I have to move the tank to have access to the back for installing the intake and output nozzle of my new FX5.

I got a 5 gallon blue pail. And i filled it up with aquarium water. Then I net and placed my del, ornate and 3 senegals into it. Added a cover and an airstone to keep the water oxygenated.

They were in there for a good hour while I was waiting for my dad to bring the drill. And by the time I was ready to place them back in the tank, it was already 1 hour 30 min. I'm guessing this would have a huge amount of stress on them

Once I netted and place all of them in the tank, I took a look and got a shock! Every one of them turned white. The more obvious was my Ornate, it was like a 100% colour change from black to white.

The first thing that came into my mind was "OMG!! I FIGURED OUT THE SECRET TO MAKING PLATINIUM BICHIRS!".

I offed the lights and their colours are slowly coming back now. Just wanted to share to see if any of you have similar [FONT=&quot]experience[/FONT].

I'll upload some pics that I took yesterday and now so you can see the difference.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Senegal:
Before

After

Delhezi:
Before

After

Ornate:
Before

After

 

[Dreamsofpeace54]

i used to keep my senegals on the whitest sand i could find. One of the 2 was extremely light in color and the other was just slightly darker. They almost looked sickly they were so light in color but ate and grew well. I imagine the stress is what did it for sure but apparently so will light colored substrate.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Yay i read about how substrate can affect the colour but not stress. This was a first-hand experience for me. BTW they are all back to colour. ROFL!

 

[cyberwaste]

That happened to my lacecatfish when I moved (3hour drive) lol it was kinda sad

 

[benzjamin13]

Just stressed. Without proper acclimation, it probably put them in a bit of shock.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

I did acclimate them for about 1 hour using the drip technique. But I had to net them out and put back in several time slowly so that they won't struggle so much as the opening of my lid is quite small and I don't want them to injure themselves hitting on the canopy.

 

[benzjamin13]

Weird...but the good thing is that they are okay.

 

[geph]

If you acclimate them right them maybe it was just going from a blue bucket to light color rocks. At least they're ok

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Yup they have got their personality back. When I first place them back into the tank, all of them were like clustered together in white. This morning I woke up and everything was usual again. My delhezi stills swims at the front begging for food, My Ornate is still shy and hides whenever Im around (He doesn't love me ) and my 3 senegals are being the usual active brats, swimming all around the tank.