Stress lines?

[Spicy MacHaggis]

How quickly do stress lines appear/dissapear? I just did a good cleaning on Shepard's tank and I kept him in the cup he came in while I was cleaning. When I was going to put him back in the tank I noticed very distinct dark lines on him. After he was released back into his home it looks like they're gone already. Can they vanish that quick?

[ZergyMonster]

When I clean or rearrange my sorority tank I cup and place my girls in a large empty tank with warm water to keep them warm while I clean. One of my girls gets really stressed out and turns almost white(she is dark blue) until she can get back into my planted tank. I have a few other girls that stress but not to that degree. And my other girl just acts tough and doesn't stress at all.

From what I noticed they can appear and disappear in seconds, all they want to do is feel safe.

[Oldfishlady]

Line, stripes, color changes are a forum of communication and camo....they don't always mean stress....sometimes the line are to help them blend into the environment and they can come and go as needed.....

To answer your question...Yes....they can go as fast as they came...the fish uses them as they see fit to communicate or hide/camo....

[Spicy MacHaggis]

That's crazy. I knew that could change color but not that quick. Guess I'm still kind of a betta amateur yet. Still lots to learn.

[Tamyu]

The color changes are pretty fascinating. Definitely a surprise - with other fish I have, changing color is a sign of something being wrong...

My girl is almost white while sleeping at night, bright pink in the morning, and then a beautiful purple in the evening. When I bought her, she was a creamy blue color. She is a lot darker and colorful when happy - she darkens visibly while doing the food dance as I take the lid off her tank to feed her.

She really looks like a different fish in photos taken just hours apart.

[LittleBettaFish]

Since I have male wild bettas sharing a tank they will usually use stripes rather than aggression to communicate.

I have a dominant male who has the front of the tank as his territory (he is on some kind of bubble-nesting frenzy currently) and if he approaches the other two males or the female, they will immediately clamp their fins, stripe up and let him do whatever he wants.

However, one will sometimes stripe up during their brief fights and I've always wondered if it was because he knew he was going to lose or didn't really want to fight in the first place.

I find it amazing how they can just switch it on and off like that.