Yellow watchman now white

[koi lady]

Hi to all, My Yellow Watchman Gobi has been in my tank for about a month now. This morning he came out of the rocks and instead of a bright yellow he was white. His partner is still yellow. He is eating and swimming normally. My tank water was just tested at the LMFS to check if my test kit was off and everything is within normal limits.
Anyone have any ideas???

 

[koi lady]

Seeing no one ventured a reply, I went looking on my own.
Found out that my changing color watchman has a high probability of spawning. "He" is a she and the color change is normal. She is now the color of the LR in the tank. The pair of them is excavating a large area under the LR, so maybe with luck I will have baby gobies soon.

 

[good alex]

Thats awesome, good luck witraising the babies

 

[nygel]

does it kinda have light stripes too? mine did that long ago... maybe I should get another hmmm...

 

[koi lady]

It is an odd fish. When the lights go on in the morning "she" is a very pale yellow but within an hour the color darkens to the LR color. I also read that if the watchman is stressed (multiple new fish in tank) they can change color or get pale stripes for awhile.

 

[sepulatian]

What are your EXACT water parameters for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, SG, and temp?

 

[oceanlover]

Take pictures!!! We want to see the babies when they com.

 

[koi lady]

My water parameters are:
temp: 75.6
SG: 1.022
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: .5
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.1

 

[koi lady]

No babies yet, but I do have pics of the pair.

 

[petjunkie]

Very interesting! Any babies will probably get eaten by your other fish or sucked into filters but if they spawn they may do it regularly and maybe you could try raising babies.

 

[koi lady]

Was checking my tank this morning and spotted a yellow mass in the back of my tank under one of the rocks my Yellow Watchman pair have been excavating.

So I guess I'm an auntie. There is not much out there about care of the eggs and babies if they hatch. The only info I found says the feeding of the fry is quite difficult because they require smaller free-swimming food than even baby clownfish. Ah well.

 

[renogaw]

that's awe inspiring! so rotifers are too large, maybe just saturate the tank with phytoplankton? that's what generally rotifers eat.