Chromis color/behavior

spieszak

New member
I can't seem to get a picture because when "it" occurs, the fish is moving around and hiding too much, so I'm going to do my best to describe it.
In the evenings, usually after I feed, and only when just my actinics are on, one of my blue/green chromis has a weird color change going on. Its not every night, but its more often than a "breeding cycle" would be I think.
It almost looks like the fish has been "rolled" in carbon dust, but only in "thick" lines. The fish is about 2 inches, and I'd say I see about 3 or 4 1/4 bands where the color change occurs. It doesn't look "healthy", but its temporary and has been going on for months, and the fish doesn't show any signs of stress or anything.
I have two, one much larger than the other, and I assume they are a pair given their behavior. When the color change occurs, it is usually accompanied by the smaller (the one whose color changes) fish doing what appears to possibly be cleaning of the rocks in prep for laying eggs, although I have seen no eggs. The fish does this in multiple spots, and "waits" on the other fish to visit that spot, or sometimes works to ""invite" the other fish to it.
It appears to be mating behavior to me, but that could just be that I have no idea what else it could be...
Anyone else experience something like this? Anything I should worry about? (I don't think its likely I need to worry, because the fish seems obviously healthy... but if this is step one of some weird disease...)
 


Crappy pics. In the one I marked, you can ALMOST see the "lines"... They are much more pronounced in person. Its really hard to get pics with just the actinics, especially on a cell phone camera....
 
That happens to me also only when that color is on I always found it very strange but I never really looked into depth about it
 
is it much more pronounced than in the picture when you see it? those 'lines' get deep gray or almost black when its really pronounced. if the whole fish was changing color it wouldn't seem so weird to me as it does that it changes in bands or lines...
 
Back
Top