# Boesemani Changes Color When I Turn Light Off



## cavemanf16 (Jul 5, 2007)

Why Must You Capitalize Every Word And Provide Run On Sentences? Do You Suffer From Internet Voice Immodulation?


----------



## Fat Man (Nov 2, 2006)

Many fish have a night color pattern. And yes the capitals on every word make your post difficult to read.


----------



## hungryhound (Apr 1, 2007)

I have a couple of rainbow fish and mine change color as well. However the person you bought him from is right in that the color will develop more as they age, but I do not think this is what you are seeing.

To me it seems like the color of the rainbow fish changes on the mood / stress level of the fish, similar to how some varieties of loaches gray out when they are stressed.

Is the change in lighting in the tank gradual or drastic. This may be causing the fish to become stressed and he looses his bright colors. 

It also makes sense when thinking evolutionarily that a fish would tend to mute his colors when in high light situations or stressful circumstances to avoid detection by predators.

I know that on mine that when the light first comes on they lose their vibrant color but sometimes later in the day it comes back. 

The other issue might be that how much light and how it reflects off of the fish changes how vibrant they appear.

While not a concrete answer, I hope this helps some.


----------



## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

bosemani (or however you spell it) can also change colors in the light. Mine regularly will flash different shades of blue and yellow when they are feeding or fighting with other males. 

Capitalizing every word would just be annoying to even type much less read.


----------



## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I'd bet he had the caps on, cause when you type in all caps in this forum, is capitalizes the first letter instead. 


TRY IT OUT.


----------



## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

hmm. maybe I had it confused with a different forum?


----------



## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

you did lol


----------



## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

I've noticed with my neon dwars, and I've only had them for a short time, but have read about alot, is that lighting plays a huge role in colour scheme. If there is too much light, the colours get washed out. It's been reccommended on alot of the sites I researched to have some floating plants or duckweed type plants to help shade out the light, creating some 'darker' patches and shadows. This supposedly aleviates the stress level and also lets their colours shine alot more. 

Just what I've read.


----------



## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Many fish change color at night to avoid predation/blend in with their surroundings. Perfectly normal.


----------



## TheXman (Oct 27, 2006)

Rainbows do indeed change color for many reasons, and yes they tend to get very dark when the lights are off. My turquoise rainbow turns charcoal grey, almost black when the lights are off, but after only 5 minutes in the light, he is a brilliant, shiny turquoise. This is normal. Give the bosemani some time to color up. Rainbows look pretty plain until they get at least 5 or 6 months old and don't reach their full potential until they are a year or maybe even two for some species. However, there are a lot of washed-out bosemanis being sold in the lfs, so he might not be as brilliant as some of the pics you've seen, and if he's the only rainbowfish, he won't ever show his brightest colors (they need other rainbows to show off to!) Good stock of quality fish can be found though. Check out aquabid for rainbows sold by rarefishatlax, he has quality stock and his bosemanis are a sight to behold!


----------



## TheXman (Oct 27, 2006)

Almost forgot, since rainbows have iridescent scales, their colors can be enhanced/changed by the type and angle of lighting you have. If you can adjust the placement of the lights, put them as close to the front of the tank as possible, and if you have some different types of lighting, (different wavelengths etc.) experiment and see what makes him look best! And dark backgrounds and substrates and live plants will also bring out MUCH brighter/darker colors in rainbows.:icon_mrgr


----------

