SH will change color to match surrounding

johnvu713 · #1 01/12/2006, 03:42 AM

a friend of mine told me SH will change color to match its enviroment. He told me he purposely put in yellow/orange rocks in an attempt for them to change color. Can it be done?

luvabunny · #2 01/12/2006, 08:29 AM

I agree with half of the statement - "a seahorse will change color" - I have not actually ever seen where a seahorse changed to match it's environment, otherwise, all seahorses would be green to match caulerpa, or purple to match coralline algae.

I think color change has more to do with mood and stress levels than environment.

equinecpa · #3 01/12/2006, 09:38 AM

I think it also depends on the species of horse. I read a lot about black reidie turning yellow and vice versa. I have Erectus and can't say mine change color much. Their shade of color will vary depending on what they are hitched to but mine don't do any drastic color changes. My juvis were pretty much all dark brown in their bare bones fry raising tank and only took on their shades of color when put into a tank with live rock, macro etc.

I have some Erectus I have raised they range from pinkish shades to brown, and one stays a greenish shade. I have some purchased Erectus that are orange and so far they have stayed very orange.

Carolyn

DanU · #4 01/12/2006, 02:49 PM

Quote:

a friend of mine told me SH will change color to match its enviroment. He told me he purposely put in yellow/orange rocks in an attempt for them to change color. Can it be done?

Can it be done? Yes! The question is though, will it work? Seahorses can and do change colors based on environment and other factos such as those mentioned. They do have limitations though. We have played with the colorations on some of ours by changing out the hitching posts and did see different colorations. Since we are using bare bottom tanks it was easy. It can be much tougher in the typical setup with live rock and sand which has a lot of neutral tones.

Somewhere back in this forum, Pete Gijowna did a nice job explaining how seahorses change colors and their limitations.

Dan

greenighs · #5 01/12/2006, 07:46 PM

I tell ya right now, the plaid tank background I tried did NOT work on the horses.

johnvu713 · #6 01/12/2006, 09:23 PM

LOL maybe you need to try poka dots

Puffdragon · #7 01/14/2006, 07:20 AM

Or Snow flake. Oh sorry some do that