My L18 was fine this morning when I left for work. I came home and he is a whitish-pink. You almost can't see his white spots hes so pale. The newest addition to the tank is a piece of driftwood that was soaked for a week in the tub. I filled the tub up with hot water on Monday. On Wednesday I drained the tub, rinsed the wood with hot water, refilled the tub with hot water. Drained the tub again on Saturday and rinsed the wood with hot water again. I lthen let it cool and put it in the tank. Ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-0, ph-7, temp-78-80F. I took him oput of the 135 and put him in the 50. None of my other fish look sick. My female L183 is ALWAYS on the new wood and she looks great. Whats going on here?

Hi Funky,
I'll try to help. A few questions to help narrow down the scenarios please.
How big is the L18 in contrast with your other plecos? Have you witnessed the L18 eating? If so, was it meaty or veggy or have you seen the fish eating both? Has your temperature remained relatively constant? If the female L183 is constantly on the new wood and remaining healthy, then I would tend to rule that out but just to ask the question, what kind of wood and where did you get it? I would expect very dark coloration as a stress reaction vice white, but maybe Clunkster has seen this before. The 135 looked like a very healthy tank BTW. The water flow and substrate looked conducive to healthy maintenance of your fish.
good luck
mike

Fish can also lose the colour when stressed out as well, which i have seen, putting the fish in another tank and the colour starting to come back could be the answer as the agressor is not in the same tank, also you state their is no laborious breathing and seems to be eating ok, then i would suggest it is stress related, you dont have any breeding fish in the 130 do you ?

I think you're right Clunkster. I think ye olde L18 might have had his A$$ handed to him and was the loser of a little territorial dispute. I just wasn't sure on the coloration. Have you seen plec's go white from stress? My experience is darkening versus lightening of normal coloration when the fish is experiencing stress.
mike

I haven't noticed any breeding behavior going on. I don't which fish would be the aggressor during the day. Most of the more aggressive fish only come out at night. It may be the featherfin, but I doubt it.

It is more likly to have happend at night time with the lights off as that is when all the catfish will be on the prowl as well as looking around for food.
mpp yes i have seen a L083/L165/L196 which i still have, lose its colour not to the extent that it went white,(but very very pale) when my L155 decided to let him know who was the boss in the tank Now whether the paleness was due to the fact that i have sand for a substrate, but that was the only reason i could think of as most fish will try to blend in with the surroundings

Thanks Clunkster. I think there's a good chance environmental colors affect the fish too, as you pointed out. I haven't had any of my fish stress out recently and the move over to the silica sand substrate was pretty recent. I used to run much darker gravel so could easily see how that would work. Makes sense to want to blend in as much as possible in that kind of situation.
all the best
mike

It had to be a dispute of some type if the simple removal from the other tank resulted in a rapid improvement IMHO. I agree that its more common at night but that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened during the day even under regular tank lighting. My L204's and varioius BN's are pretty active during the day. The others much less so. One can coax the L191's, L95, L104 and L66's out during the day with a well placed strip of zuchini but they'll dash away and hide again at the slightest movement in the immediate vicinity of the tanks.
mike

He has improved 100% in the 50 gallon. I was worried that the L27 was going to have beef with him because of size, but they eat on the same piece of squash side by side. No squabbling at all.

I go to work when its daylight out, but get home at dusk. There is 2 24" lights and 2 18" lights on the 135. They are turned on at 7:30 a.m. and turned off at 10 p.m. One of the fish had to be pestering him pretty bad.

Thanks Mike.

Clunkster
The L191, L95 LDA20 and nearly mature veil brown ancistrus still are in a tank with gravel substrate. Once I swap them over to sand, I'll see if I can see a change. It might be easier if I'm consciously looking for one.
regards
mike