Yellow Watchman Goby now pale (suddenly)

[One Reefing Boi]

This morning, my YWG was bright yellow and eating.

After the hurricane, we lost power but have a generator and I am running my flow pump and filter. We don't have AC though and my tank says it is 82 right now, (usually 79) and just turned on the lights quickly to see everything and how it looks. My YMG was asleep in the corner and like grey/beige color -- quite startling actually.

Is this from the temperature change and it is super stressed? Anything I can do? we don't have AC powered on the generator but don't have a fan.

I know they change color with age/sex sometimes but this was in the matter of hours, not months.

 

[PTXReef]

My little mandarin looks like it's gray and decaying at night . It freaks me out every time I see her but she's as happy as can be when the lights are on for a few hours. IMO your goby should be fine (definitely check again tomorrow a few hours after lights come on. I am guessing it's something like a yellow tang's nocturnal stripes coming out at night (which definitely freaked me out the first time around). Best thing to do now is relax and wait until tomorrow

 

[One Reefing Boi]

My little mandarin looks like it's gray and decaying at night . It freaks me out every time I see her but she's as happy as can be when the lights are on for a few hours. IMO your goby should be fine (definitely check again tomorrow a few hours after lights come on. I am guessing it's something like a yellow tang's nocturnal stripes coming out at night (which definitely freaked me out the first time around). Best thing to do now is relax and wait until tomorrow

ok thanks!! I figured it could be something that it does at night to blend in or something (never seen it at night) but it was just poor coincidence that it was the day the power went out and it was pale. I'll keep an eye on it though

 

[Lizbeli]

Some fish normally get pale during the night. So if you were having to keep the lights off that’s probably why. If your filter and pump have been on I wouldn’t worry much.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Some fish normally get pale during the night. So if you were having to keep the lights off that’s probably why. If your filter and pump have been on I wouldn’t worry much.

yeah running extension cords everywhere lol to get up to it, but just was worried about the temp getting up to almost 82 degrees. It is like 75 out though and my windows are open so should in theory settle out

 

[sfin52]

mine goes pale at night completely normal

 

[One Reefing Boi]

mine goes pale at night completely normal

ok thank you! just bad timing with the power and things so wasnt sure if it was normal. glad to hear it

 

[sfin52]

like stated above when lights go out a lot of the fish will mute colors

 

[susan ingram]

Glad to see this is normal,,, Stay Safe One Reefing Boi!!

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Update Incase anyone else has this happen: YWG is ok and bright yellow again this morning. So it seems like it is a sleeping thing

 

[Zionas]

Wow I didn’t know gobies also change colors like this. Thought it was only blennies and a couple other fish like Rabbitfish.

 

[wwarby]

Update Incase anyone else has this happen: YWG is ok and bright yellow again this morning. So it seems like it is a sleeping thing

Very much hoping my YWG will be turning yellow again tomorrow morning. He was bright yellow this afternoon and at 10pm he’s white as a ghost - it freaked me out so I went googling and landed on this thread.

 

[PTXReef]

Very much hoping my YWG will be turning yellow again tomorrow morning. He was bright yellow this afternoon and at 10pm he’s white as a ghost - it freaked me out so I went googling and landed on this thread.

Don't worry about it, he will be yellow again soon! I recently got another one of these guys at the LFS and he was completely white...exactly like your pic. I thought it was a different species but after a few days he's transitioning to yellow!

 

[TokenReefer]

Mine looks that way as well. I was under the impression it was female? Or (anecdotally) a pistol shrimp buddy might bring the yellow back? I'm looking for the right shrimp currently...

 

[wwarby]

Don't worry about it, he will be yellow again soon! I recently got another one of these guys at the LFS and he was completely white...exactly like your pic. I thought it was a different species but after a few days he's transitioning to yellow!

She turned yellow again this morning

Very interesting. She turned white again after lights out tonight - I think I’d prefer she just stayed yellow but it’s kinda fascinating that she can change so drastically between day and night.

 

[wwarby]

Mine looks that way as well. I was under the impression it was female? Or (anecdotally) a pistol shrimp buddy might bring the yellow back? I'm looking for the right shrimp currently...

She has one - I bought a Randall’s pistol shrimp at the same time. They slept together in a corner of the tank the first night but the shrimp disappeared the next day and I haven’t seen it for four days now, but I’ve heard it daily. It’s a little disappointing but they’ll only be in the QT/observation tank for six weeks so even if I don’t see it again until then I might get another opportunity for them to pair up when I move them. That’s if I can find the pistol shrimp of course

 

[TokenReefer]

Interesting. I asked about pairing in another thread and no specific technique was mentioned to get them to pair. Do keep us posted when you move them

 

[wwarby]

Interesting. I asked about pairing in another thread and no specific technique was mentioned to get them to pair. Do keep us posted when you move them

Yeah will do. I read somewhere that they tend to find the nearest piece of rock to where they land when they’re dropped into the tank and somebody said theirs got spooked as it was floating down, darted backwards and landed at the back of the tank so ended up making it’s burrow there. To prevent that happening I used two nets to lower him to the place I wanted him to burrow but it didn’t quite work as expected - he crawled out in the right place but didn’t find the rock, and instead walked to the front corner of the tank. At least I could see him there, but he must have since moved to the rock. The strange thing is they had paired up for 24 hours before the pistil shrimp disappeared and I’m pretty sure it’s not been killed or anything because I can hear it.

 

[TokenReefer]

Notice any piles of sand around? No hints from the goby I take it. I wonder if gentle placement with tongs might work... Might just try the net approach too tho not a bad idea. Still looking for a shrimp :/ gonna hit the lfs tomorrow.

 

[i cant think]

just wanted to tell you guys this;
A watchman turning grey may stay grey long term. Some will go grey/brown and some will stay yellow, it’s a phenomenon nobody can explain. It’s not to do with sex as we have known breeding pairs of both colours. The watchman’s do go pale when sleeping however they can sometimes turn grey/brown for no reason. And since we have breeding pairs of both colours (Pairs of grey/brown watchman’s and Pairs of yellow watchman’s) it can’t be something to do with age.

Not all will turn grey however it appears that about 50% of watchmans will. These statistics are just what I’ve seen personally, I don’t believe they’re true statistics.
Just because this is a YWG thread, here’s my Juvenile Cryptocentrus cinctus in my 4’ tank.