Color Change/Fade??

[Beaches]

OK, I woke up this am and my Blue Tang is laying next to the glass and he's real pale (really light blue--the lights in the tank were off) no marks on him, no spots nothing. I did a no-no and stuck my hand in the water, I touched him and he didn't dart away just stayed next to the glass. A few minutes later he swam into the rocks to his favorite hiding place.

First thing I did was a water check--everything is fine. I turned on the lights and added some bacterial med that the LFS gave me to use for ick thinking that maybe whatever it was, the med might help--I'm thinking it couldn't hurt.

OK, here's the wierd thing...I went back to check on him a few minutes later...he was fine!! What's the deal? Do you think he was just asleep or what?

I checked the other fish too, the yellow was a little pale too, but the rest (chromis and clown )were all fine...

Any ideas...did I just panic?

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Yup a little anxiety disorder!

My yellow tang would almost fade to white when lights were out in the tank and some of the other fish showed a faded color as well! Pretty normal from what I can see!

[Geoff]

just sleeping. ZZZZZZZZZ

several fish have a sleeping colour pattern or habit. wrasses make a sleeping bag. that wigged me out the first i saw this!
most have a faded colour pattern for sleeping. foxfaces go ugly. a really blotchy pattern. some mandarins fade and act dead sometimes when they sleep. i have come to learn that i do not worry about any of the critters until the lights have been on for at least an hour.

G~

the ugliest fish is my mandy he looks deader than a doornail when he is sleeping

[Reefer Addict]

The only thing that I would mention is that in the future don't add medication to the reef tank... find a suitable bowl or quarentine tank to treat any fish or corals that need medical aid.
Some of the medications used to treat animals will kill off the beneficial bacteria in the tank and cause it to cycle again.
Otherwise, I'm glad to see that everything turned out alright.
My fish get really pale at night too... I guess they have nobody to show off for in the dark.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hey beaches! I think the color fading aids in camouflage as the light fades on the coral reef so they do it in our glass boxes as well!

good point reefer