My Yellow watchman changed color?!

[Lance M.]

I bought two yellow watchman gobies a couple months ago along with a pair of tiger pistols. One of the gobies was about an inch long and the other was about 2.5 inches long. Both of the gobies looked like normal yellow watchmans... yellow with the blue spots. I haven't seen much of the larger one but the small one will come out and stare at me. After not seeing the larger one for about two weeks, I saw him today after I moved some stuff around, causing the pistols to make new burrows. The bigger goby now has brown/black on the top of his head and along the top of the body with not much yellow coloring. The blue dots on the top fins have changed to white and the bottom fin is completely blue. What happened to him?

Sorry but I cant get a picture, it always ducks into the burrow when I move too much.

 

[Airwolf75]

They will change colors for many reasons. They seem to do it a bit more often when other Yellow Watchmen Gobies are around. But sometimes for other unknown reasons too.

For example, my Yellow Watchman Goby is 6 years old, It spend 2 years yellow, then 1 year grey, then 3 years yellow. The grey came when it moved to a new tank. So theres another reason I suppose. But the changes are pretty instant, so the goby seems to have control over them.

 

[smootie]

You have a blue-finned watchman! That's different from a gray yellow watchman. I have a yellow one that turns gray sometimes.

The blue finned variety are really cool. I had one that did the opposite - he was gray with a vivid blue fin. When I put him in my tank with a yellow, he slowly turned yellow. After he settled in, he turned back to gray/blue.

I have no idea why they change color and haven't found answers anywhere, but both color morphs (yellow or gray with blue) are very attractive. At least around here, the blue-finned ones are a lot more expensive than the yellow ones. If you got blue-finned ones, you totally lucked out!

 

[Lance M.]

I've been thinking about it. I have another yellow watchman in another tank at home (I'm in college now) with a very large red japanese pistol and i am lucky to see the watchman 5 times a year but I know he's still there. Last time I saw him he was the same drab brown/black color on top but nothing else different.

This watchman in the original post stays hidden also with my tiger pistol pair.

Maybe if they stay "underground" with pistols they change color to blend in with the substrate??

My smaller watchman that is in the same tank comes out more and has stayed the yellow w/ blue spots color.

Maybe that's it?