What is Happening to my Butterfly??

[livinlifeinBKK]

Over the past few hours (literally) my Vagabond butterfly's color pattern has changed from white on the side to this black streak...what is going on? Is he sick with something??

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

@Jay Hemdal do you know what this may be?

 

[ZoWhat]

What's going on with your murky water?

If you have an algae bloom going on... it sucks vital O2 right out of the water bc the algae is consuming it exponentially.

If your butterfly is breathing rapidly.... better get an airstone in there STAT! or pull it to put in a QT


.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

What's going on with your murky water?

If you have an algae bloom going on... it sucks vital O2 right out of the water bc the algae is consuming it exponentially.

If your butterfly is breathing rapidly.... better get an airstone in there STAT! or pull it to put in a QT


.

The water is murky because I just got him a couple days ago and he's in QT....I do have an airstone in there and the water is murky from offering him fresh oysters

 

[ZoWhat]

Clouding the water with any food is bad medicine

Good luck

 

[HuduVudu]

Over the past few hours (literally) my Vagabond butterfly's color pattern has changed from white on the side to this black streak...what is going on? Is he sick with something??

Those are his night colors i.e. the colors that he puts on when he sleeps.

This is a HUGE stress indicator and he is most likely not to live.

The cloudy water is a very strong indication of bacterial bloom and this means that the tank is cycling.

I would highly suggest multiple large water changes. This is not a good place to be.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Those are his night colors i.e. the colors that he puts on when he sleeps.

This is a HUGE stress indicator and he is most likely not to live.

The cloudy water is a very strong indication of bacterial bloom and this means that the tank is cycling.

I would highly suggest multiple large water changes. This is not a good place to be.

I just did a large water change seconds ago

 

[ying yang]

.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I just did a large water change seconds ago

It does sort of look like this species' night coloration, and that can also be brought on by stress.

Jay

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

It does sort of look like this species' night coloration, and that can also be brought on by stress.

Jay

Thank you Jay, I was actually unaware their nighttime coloration was so pronounced and feared the worst (this is actually my first butterfly)...it was the middle of the night here when this picture was taken although he's probably a little stressed as well. Sorry for the false alarm.

 

[reeftivo]

my two strip rabbit fish does the same thing. beautiful in the store and blotchy when stressed after i got him home. Colors are back and he's back to the way he looked at the LFS.

edit: before the rabbit fish police chime in, he's going in a 180 gallon tank in a week and is a juvinile right now ;-)