My damsel...the chameleon...

[Brock Fluharty]

Ok, so I have a Fiji devil damsel, and I was trying to get him into his QT tank for itch meds. Well I couldn't catch him for about an hour, and I had to disassemble all of my live rock. Yeah, bummer. Well, there was a very large piece sitting against the front of the glass, and he swam between it and the glass. He backed up against the piece of rock, and turned completely black! At first I thought this was just becuase of the shadow, but nope. He came out and stayed black for about 4 seconds, then turned bright blue again. The whole process of changing color only took about 1 second. It was awesome! Has anyone else ever experienced this?




Brock

[bigfoot]

yup allt he time they turn black when scared

[Brock Fluharty]

Lol do all damsels do this? What other types of fish do this?




Brock

[newtofish]

I have a velvet that his stripes disappear when he is stressed or mad. But when he swims away his stripes come right back.

[bubbles]

These aren't saltwater fish, but I have seen them change color. In my 55 freshwater I use to have 2 orange colored barbs, but 1 died. I added a bronze colored comet and the 2 became friends. One day as I did a head count I realized that my comet was no longer a bronze color, but a bright orange and white. Till this day he remains orange & white and friends with the barb.

Lot's of fish change color when stressed. Even more of them change color after you turn your lights out. For instance, my yellow tang would turn white every night. As soon as the lights came on in the morning, he would turn yellow again.

[Doctor_Reef]

Mantisfreak is right...lots of fish do this...I have several in my tank that do that including...my Vlamingii tang....he puts on war paint....He looks like the lone ranger with a mask.....

[MattTheFish]

Let me tell you about The Devil Damsel ! I had an investigation in my tank about a few months ago :x ! The devil started chasing my CLOWN! then the next morning i woke up and found my 3 stipe damsel Dead! Dum Dum Dum!! Then a few days later i found my six line dead! The water was fine! Wat happened you say? A MURDERER!!! Coensedence? NOT!

[MattTheFish]

OH, and by the way, that little thing took me a week to catch, Had to take out the Live Rock to get him!