ghostly Oto

[StuG]

So here's the scoop.
Last week, when I did my pwc one of my Otos kind of got itself trapped in the corner where I was vacuuming (it wasn't really trapped, but it apparently felt like it was), and of course immediately freaked out and turned almost white. I moved off the area so he could calm down and get his/her wits about him.
Now, one week later, it's definitely not that almost white color anymore, but still very gray looking.
It's feeding fine, and has a nice fat belly, and otherwise looks healthy.
Does it sometimes take a long time for them to regain color, or is there likely something else going on? Is it possible it still feels stressed from that incident (even with it's 8 second memory, or whatever it is!!)?
Could it simply just stay that color for the rest of it's life?

 

[kaiofcanada]

Stress can make fish susceptible to disease. He might be fine, just keep an eye on it to be sure he doesn't get sick.

I had an angelfish that hated water changes. He went ghost white every time and then back to his normal colour an hour or so after the change and would gobble up any food. He was otherwise very healthy, just a bit neurotic. Depending on the level of his stress, such as if I also moved plants around....it would take a bit longer to coax him out of corners and for him to change back to his normal self. It was a bit sad, but amusing. I named him Rorschach for that very reason. Oddly I had a different angel who assaulted the vacuum during the entire water change procedure and intentionally swam in the path of the water being added and preferred zooming through the filter stream as well. Two opposite fish in every way.

Some fish are more apt to stress than others, just keep a close eye and be sure he doesn't make himself sick lol.