Shine a flashlight on your Bristlenose...

grimlock3000 · Post by **grimlock3000** » 14 Dec 2003, 04:31

My Bristlenose has a very distinct gold/rust reflection that covers almost its entire body and can only be seen with a flashlight. I found this one night while poking around the tank with a flashlight on a totally unrelated matter. A few other fish appeared to be scratching, so I thought it was Velvet. I began treatment with Maracide. I am on day 5, which should be the last day of treatment, and the Bristlenose still has the rusty reflection. Maybe my fish is not sick? Is this normal? I took a pic of it...

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Post by **Barbie** » 14 Dec 2003, 05:08

It's definitely a natural thing for your bristlenose to have that golden sheen. I have a picture of one in a cave that shows it very well, but danged if I can find the cd its on. If you're treating the tank for just what you saw on him, I would stop immediately and do some 30% water changes daily for a week or so.

Barbie

grimlock3000 · Post by **grimlock3000** » 14 Dec 2003, 05:26

Well, my other fish stopped scratching at least

Time for a midnight water change

I am going to put some carbon in the tank right away to get the meds out of the water. Thanks for the help!

S. Allen · Post by **S. Allen** » 14 Dec 2003, 16:15

I believe the sheen is due to very fine, hair-like odontodes, or spines on the scutes. can anyone confirm this?

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 14 Dec 2003, 16:19

S. Allen wrote:I believe the sheen is due to very fine, hair-like odontodes, or spines on the scutes. can anyone confirm this?

Absolutely spot on.

Jools

grimlock3000 · Post by **grimlock3000** » 15 Dec 2003, 18:03

Is there a reason my fish did not have this color before? Maybe it was not mature enough?

S. Allen · Post by **S. Allen** » 15 Dec 2003, 18:28

that's probably possible, but... are you sure it wasn't there before, and you didn't notice it? the sheen's fairly difficult to see most of the time, unless you're looking for it, on my fish anyway, except the L038...

grimlock3000 · Post by **grimlock3000** » 16 Dec 2003, 17:50

I have shined a flashlight in the tank very frequently in the past while trying to see if my Bristlenose was eating the algae wafers. I have never seen the sheen before, and it was very obvious when I saw it the other night. When I first saw it, my heart sank because I was certain my fish was doomed. The only thing I have done different in the last couple weeks is to stop putting the algae wafers in the tank. I have some green algae in the tank so I figured he can chew on that for a while.