# Do fish go white and really pale when they are freaked out?



## mags2313 (Nov 25, 2008)

I am sorry if this is not the appropriate place to post this..I wanted to make sure this got seen.

Has anyone else seen thier loaches or otocat's go really pale before?


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

First thing I do when I observe a change in fishes behaivor or color is test the water with a quality test kit. It only takes a few minutes,treating possible sick fish takes longer. If water quality is maintained, I have less problems with fish. I always quarantine new fish. Never hurts to play it safe.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Loaches, when tussling, will gray out. I've got a herd of yoyos and when I first had them I remember freaking out that two of them were deathly ill as they were so gray. I could barely see their markings. After some input here and a little web research I learned that this is common behavior of loaches. Even a few of the clowns I have will get into squabbles and they get so gray you can't tell they were ever orange. All color comes back once they *settle* down. 
I've noticed the same behaviors with my rams. When they are doing their typical *get out of my territory* the defender usually colors down. Once the intruder takes off the full color returns to the defender. 
When startled my otos also turn gray. Since it is loaches & otos that you are posting this question about I'd assume that they are probably okay. 
As 1077 states, testing and maintaining water quality is very important. If your parameters check out ok I'd continue to observe your fish. This may be very normal behavior for them as it is for mine.


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## Tyyrlym (Jun 1, 2008)

If its a constant loss of color you might have bigger problems like water quality. I know most of my fish lose color when stressed. In fact all of them do. Right after I moved her from my QT to my main tank my red tailed black shark was light gray with a see through tail. Today she's jet black with a bright red tail.


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## flight50 (Sep 30, 2008)

first off, your 32g sounds overloaded. secondly, what did you recently do when your fish changed color. water change,temp, rearranging the tank, or transferred fish. all can stress the fish temporarily. if they don't settle down and regain their color, you have other issues.


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## Tyyrlym (Jun 1, 2008)

The zebra loaches will be the biggest fish in her tank and they are only going to get about 3 inches long. The tank is fine in my opinion, even with the loaches growing you could probably increase the size of the schools somewhat and still be fine.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Aunt Kymmie was very right about loaches graying out. Mine are always getting in little spats, the looser will immediately loss all of it color, but returns to normal very quickly. I dont have otos, but i would say if you water checks out ok, all is normal.


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