Spine color change? Also is purigen ok?

[Cohazard]

My cochliodon has really nice spines that were brownish when it came in and now they're turning white.

Is this a sign of me doing something wrong? Water Paramus are good but my water does come out of the tap with nitrates.

I'm gonna start running purigen in my filters, but I'm curious if it will in some way negatively affect the growth of panaque spines?

Thanks

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

Can you post some photos? My Blue Eye, he sheds his, they seem to be close to the color he is, then they turn white and after about a month they fall off and he regrows them. I don't use Purigen so someone else may want to chime in on that part. But I would say you are fine from what you are posting, unless you upload some photos that show otherwise.

 

[Cohazard]

Thanks for sharing your experience brutha.

Got some bad quality pics, hope this works.

This is what color they were when I first got him:




This is today, the whiskers and spines are noticeably whiter but not as white as your BECs:

 

[Dis]

I recently got an L27. He had huge whiskers that started falling off a few days after I got him. I was very worried but reassurred by others that this is normal. I was told that in the wild they get them at different times of the year and no one really knows when they would get them in the aquaria.

 

[Cohazard]

Cool thanks for the heads up brutha. He hasn't lost any yet thankfully I would've freaked out!

 

[Dis]

Ya I pretty much did. I bought him cause I knew he was a male and because of his huge odontodes. Then they fall off within a week....I was pretty mad. Hopefully he grows them back

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

They will grow back for sure, a lot of times suppliers cut them off so they don't puncture the bags while being shipped.