Six-Line Wrasse looks spotchy

[FishyReef]

Went to check on the fish today and the coloring on my six-line wrasse looked strange, like pink undertones had become large splotches. She didn't look very good, but was active and acting like her normal cryptic self. I rarely see her, only when she darts between the rocks, so it was hard to get a good look, let alone a picture. She's a very small six-line, only about 1" and has never come to join the others at meal time. She's been in the tank for over a month and I presume has been eating all of the various bugs that are in the rocks since I've never actually seen her eat when i feed the tank. She's always had a nice round belly, so I haven't been concerned about it. Any ideas?

 

[wontonflip]

Does she look skinnier? Did you just maybe wake her up? All my fish get all sorts of weird faded colors at bedtime and when just waking up. Can you get a pic? If you do, you're better than me LOL My 6 line is difficult to take pics of.

 

[yote]

Just guessing, But I'm thinking your wrasse had just woke up.
They'll look blotchy when first come out of their mucus cocoon. But again,it's hard to say without actually seeing it.

 

[FishyReef]

Hmm, it was around 3:30 in the afternoon, but maybe it had been napping? Do fish sleep during the day? She still looked fat and happy, if anything maybe a little larger - I wondered if their coloring changes when they go through a growth spurt (dumb newbie idea, I'm sure lol). I'll see if I can snap a pic tomorrow when I'm back at work, but this little thing is so cryptic that I'm not sure I'll succeed. Fingers crossed that it was just napping and got woken up and will look back to its normal self tomorrow and pics wont be needed!

 

[yote]

I don't know that you could call it napping,but my 6 line used to kinda hide in it's hole from time to time. I can only guess as to why.
As for the growth spurt,It could be possible. There's a lot of things that we really don't know about our fish and what they do.:dunno:

 

[FishyReef]

Well, it still looks splotchy, like some of the red/pink is bleeding into the blue lines in certain areas. It's been awake and active for at least 4 hours now so I don't think its from recently waking up. Have been trying to get a pic for awhile now with no luck - the 6 line disappears when I get close to the glass with the camera, and the red velvet is very interested in the camera and keeps getting right up in front of it bombing every shot LOL. Quite the characters I have in my tank these days lol

Good news is that its acting completely normal so until it's not or disappears completely I'm just not going to worry about it.

 

[yote]

Could be that he's scratched himself up trying to back out of a hole. In which case it should heal up. 6 lines are notorious for that.

 

[FishyReef]

Just wanted to report that my 6-line looks back to her normal self! I dunno, maybe she did scratch herself on a rock or something else, but all is well now :)

 

[MikeG]

Glad to hear the sixline is OK. :Cheers: