Yoyo loaches greying out

[zenkatydid]

My yoyos are always greyed out, not bold black and white. One of them is so grey as to be nearly a single-coloured fish with no markings, and when he gets excited, he turns into a inverted yoyo, with white markings on a grey background. My ph and temperature are within their preferences, my water's always fine for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate - I do 50% water changes fortnightly, and it's a heavily planted 4ft tank. I had 3 until today, when I added one more. The new one has better contrasting markings, so it will be interesting to see if they fade in my tank - or if having 4 loaches instead of 3 makes them colour up better.

Anyone got any thoughts or experiences with this?

Thanks!

[Andos99]

How old are they and what do you feed them?

[Zagz]

As they get older they do fade some, I too would be interested in knowing how old they are. Try feeding some variety, add some veggies etc to their diet and see if they color up any.

[zenkatydid]

i got them, as babies, about a year and a half ago. they're about 3 inches long.

they get a variety of sinking prepared foods (algae wafers, carnivore tablets, shrimp pellets), plus frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp or mysis shrimp once or twice a week, and live brine shrimp once or twice a fortnight. i occasionally put in some zucchini, mainly for the bristlenoses, but they eat some as well.

is there anything specific i could be adding? zucchini more often, do you think?

[Andos99]

I'm not really sure....I have a yoyo botia myself that eats primarily flakes intended for my tanginyikan cichlids and his colors have remained consistent throughout the three or so years I've had him.

[zenkatydid]

i'm starting to think it's just an individual thing. my new guy has more contrast to him, and hasn't started fading since being put in the tank with the others.