Kuhli camouflage?

[bevans]

The kuhli I've had the longest, the one I thought might be a p. myersi does something the other kuhlis do not. He is almost always very pale and washed out in color. Very occasionally he will be as dark as the others, but most of the time he is bleached looking. None of the others ever do this. He seems healthy enough in all other regards, but I am worried that something is wrong with him. Have any other kuhli keepers ever seen/heard of anything like this? My substrate is a very light colored gravel, but you would think that all of them would be doing this if they were trying to hide.

[Graeme Robson]

Could be a Amelanistic specimen. Here's one of mine >

[bevans]

Graeme Robson wrote:

Could be a Amelanistic specimen. Here's one of mine.

Mine looks sort of like that on his lower half when he goes pale, but pinker and without the yellow on the top half. But I thought if they were Amelanistic they were pale all the time, and he will get dark like the others from time to time. Do Amelanistic kuhlis do that? He does have dark eyes, and he looked like a regular kuhli when I bought him.

Maybe he knows how much I want an albino?

NICE kuhli, BTB. Did you just get him in a bunch of regular ones, or did you buy him specially?

[cybermeez]

A couple of mine do this with relative frequency. It's the Kuhli version of "graying out". I doubt it's an Alpha Loach thing. "Alpha Kuhli" is an oxymoron since they don't have a competitive bone in their slinky little bodies.

[bevans]

cybermeez wrote:

A couple of mine do this with relative frequency. It's the Kuhli version of "graying out".

<Sighs in relief>That's good to know. I was worried there was something wrong with him.