Quote:
Originally posted by smoke15
I had a brilliant greenish-yellow one that I bought at about 3/4" long. Unfortunately, like many anglers, he turned brownish grey to match the live-rock
Anyway to "reverse" the brownish gray color change?
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Fuggly, my A. pictus, has had many color changes in response to whatever I've done with his/her tank. He has been bright red, dark black, reddish orange, salmon, bright yellow and is now a greenish yellow w/ pink coralline-looking patches. The latest color appears to be his best attempt to turn green to match the Chaetomorpha ball he's so fond of hanging upside down from.
It appears certain species of angler are much more prone to color changes than others and I suspect the ability varies between individuals as well. Unless you have the right environment to support a brightly colored sponge, my advice is not to try to go that route. It is unfair to the sponge and possibly problematic to your water quality if the sponge starts dying.
I've thought about trying some of the new brightly colored artificial corals that are now for sale to see if I could encourage a color change. If your angler is like mine, he'll rotate ambush positions throughout the day, so you'd want all his favorite spots to be the same color you were trying to encourage for your best shot at a color change. Tank background can matter as well. My juvenile went from bright red to dark black quite rapidly because he was being held in a small critter keeper inside my 180, right up against the black back wall.