Whitetail Bristletooth tang tail turned black?

[brandon0921]

Purchased a whitetail bristletooth back in March and since then, the fishs tail has morphed from a bright white to a dirty black color. A local fish breeder had suggested that it be fish could be overly expressing due to too much astaxathan and orange/red colored proteins such as crab, salmon, etc, but I’ve since switched to new life spectrum and the tail remains black. Any ideas?

 

[brandon0921]

Here is the picture from when I first added it. Poor quality i know, but you can see the tail color is very white.

 

[brandon0921]

Bump

 

[Squidward]

That is kind of odd. No idea though.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I have never seen something similar , although tangs are known to change colors when stressed or at night .

 

[Bepis]

We can try some more knowledgeable peoples #reefsquad

 

[redfishbluefish]

Let's see if Jay can offer some advice.... @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Let's see if Jay can offer some advice.... @Jay Hemdal

Sorry - I’ve not seen that before, not sure what could cause it.
Jay

 

[arafas]

Mine is same way now!

 

[Dave1993]

LFS dyed the tail white to get more ££

 

[TurboTang]

My white tail tang has slowly become a gray tail tang. Dang - thought I had the only one with special color morph

 

[i cant think]

I think it’s just an adult/mature colouration as I have seen 2-3 that did that as they aged.

 

[arafas]

I think it’s just an adult/mature colouration as I have seen 2-3 that did that as they aged.

So you saying they will stay grey tailed?

 

[i cant think]

So you saying they will stay grey tailed?

In some cases yes, others they can change back in. I often didn’t keep them longer than a year to see if they did ever change back but the next owners of some of the white tails said theirs did change back (In the LFS I worked in we checked on the fish after being moved to the tank for the first year or so).

 

[Mr Cypher]

I had one (unfortunately lost to velvet) however I can tell you that his tail was white up until the disease started to show it seemed like the more stressed he got the darker the tail got, do you have and stressor's in your tank? Is he fighting with any one eating alright? I'm almost positive what started my woes was fighting with my yellow tang

 

[arafas]

I have a 200g. I have a few tangs in there. My purple can be an as....e. Doesnt bother him much. purple and yellow always at it. I had the white tail for over a year.