My Shovelnose's color change

[dragonsong]

FINALLY out of those fry colors Lost them right at 10.2", was wondering when he was finally going to go silver.

What's even stranger is my TSN is outranking the redtail growth wise. Don't mind the gravel n sand everywhere, pix taken right after a wc.

 

[Demo]

Does this take a while, or does it happen overnight?

 

[CHRIS79]

?^^.... huh never knew there was a color change but nice cat, like the silver color he has now.

 

[valderi123]

nice shovel

 

[necrocanis]

All catfish with coloration or a pattern on the skin develops over time. Generally with tsn you will see that they have very few spots when younger, and their pattern spreads out as they grow. It's cool to take pics over the first few years and see how the pattern is actually the same, and the same size as when you first got the fish just more of it and it's more spread out. Same thing happens with RTC. They have white(baby spots) around their dorsal fin. Usually they lose it by 9-14" in length. Planiceps pattern does much the same thing as well. Man I love catfish!!!!

 

[necrocanis]

Great looking TSN btw. Also the coloration as I've found can go from light to dark over a very short period of time. This can be due to many different factors. They will lose almost all their color if extremely startled. They go very pale quickly. Also if you keep them in a covered pond with no light their coloration goes very pale. If you keep them where they get a lot of sunlight they develop a nice dark color even at a large size. I use to keep my pond covered during the winter and uncovered during the summer. That's how I figured this out. Also think about tanning your own skin. Works with fish as well!!!

 

[dragonsong]

Great looking TSN btw. Also the coloration as I've found can go from light to dark over a very short period of time. This can be due to many different factors. They will lose almost all their color if extremely startled. They go very pale quickly. Also if you keep them in a covered pond with no light their coloration goes very pale. If you keep them where they get a lot of sunlight they develop a nice dark color even at a large size. I use to keep my pond covered during the winter and uncovered during the summer. That's how I figured this out. Also think about tanning your own skin. Works with fish as well!!!

Thanks! His pattern has changed a lot, I've got a pic from when he was 2" and he's kept the same two black spots on his adipose fin the whole time while the rest of the pattern changed.

Ps- Nice to see you back on the forums, your pix are the ones that inspired me to start keeping big cats.

 

[OddBallKeeper]

Nice shovel nose