White Oto?

Question

I had a bacteria bloom 2 days ago and used some API Accu-
Clear to clear up the water yesterday(worked great). But it made my one oto catfish turn a ghostly white and the other much lighter than normal. A betta who is also in the tank wasn't really active like he normally is. I checked on them this morning and they looked normal again.

Could this be from the Accu-Clear and the bacteria sticking to them?

Answer 1

It may very well be from the chemicals as the previous poster suggests, that is a very real possiblilty. However it may also be from ammonia in the tank. The bacteria bloom occured as a result of excess ammonia in the first place and there may still be enough to cause this stress. Check the ammonia level in the tank if possible and change water as needed to lower it. If you can't test for ammonia, I would assume it's there and do a 50% water change to thein it out.

MM

Answer 2

It's more likely that the addition of the chemicals caused the fish to become stressed. When fish are stressed, they often become lighter in color. So for otos, that would mean that they become white. Bettas might not tend to get washed out as much, but the fact that he was laying low also indicates that he was stressed. If they're back to normal now, I wouldn't worry about it, but in the future you should be careful when adding chemicals to your tank as sometimes they may do more harm then good.