Blue Hippo Tang Turning White

[Nimesh29]

Hi, we had recently bought a small blue tang. We already have a bigger blue tang in our main aquarium. Today, we added the small blue tang into our main aquarium and they seem to be pretty friendly with eachother. The bigger blue tang does not seem to bite the smaller one or show any agression towards eachother. But, there seems to be a problem. We have noticed that sometimes when our bigger blue tang goes to swim with the smaller one, he seems to turn a grey-ish white mostly along the black parts of his body. Then after a while, the grey-ish white coloration seems to fade away. We wanted to know what some possible reasons are for this occurance. Thanks!

 

[Sam816]

Pics in white lights will help with proper diagnosis. If u can't get a good pic try burst mode and see if you can get some clear shots.

 

[jda]

Hippos can have bad color if not fed well, and develop HLLE over time. They also can just be temperamental and you could be doing everything just fine. Are you feeding it a good diet with greens, meat, high quality pellets with vitamin A, HUFAs and the like? A high quality pellet like New Life Spectrum can help with color.

 

[HB AL]

Maybe a mating ritual?

 

[N.Sreefer]

When the temp in my tank dropped my hippo tank turned white mabey check the temp.

 

[ThePurple12]

Really sounds like spawning/courting behavior, not a disease or anything. All kinds of fish change color temporarily when spawning.

 

[lagatbezan]

Hippo tangs can change their color. Mine does that on occasion. It tends to do with their mood.