I came home after being away for a couple of days and found that one of my white clouds had lost almost all of its color. The other four white clouds and my goldie were picking on the pale one, chasing and nipping at him. After I fed them, he regained his color and the others stopped picking on him. It was the weirdest thing. Any thoughts on what happened?

bump

Sorry this ahsn't been aswered.

I have noticed that sometimes there colour fades (or even disappears) if the water isn't up to scratch or they haven't eaten/ are stressed etc.
I'd just check these things.
Do you have plants for them to hide in?

Hey, not a prob. You've been having puter probs. BTW, hope that's all been resolved for you.

Water quality is almost perfect , and there's plastic plants and Lok-Roks as well as real rocks. Plenty of places to hide! None of the fish ate for a couple days while I was out, but he was the only one who was washed-out.

Do you think the other fish are stressing him? I already lost one white cloud; he was a runt and the others bullied him endlessly.

What size school are they in?
Schooling fish do tend to pick on smaller ones, especially if there are only a couple of the same species.

Unfortunately more puter probs are still going on! We thought it was the motherboard but it may be the CPU. It's such a headache! Hopefully we'll have it fixed soon.

There were six of them before the runt died. I'm sure that Fluffy (my ryukin) isn't much help, either... he picks on EVERYTHING--the oto, the white clouds, and even the betta now that they're sharing a hospital tank for fungus (I know, a goldfish and a betta aren't a good combo, but they both needed to be treated for the same fungus infection). Anywho, do you think a school of five white clouds is too small?

Here's hoping your puter gets well soon!

Hmm I would have thought that 5 would be fine. Maybe you could get a few more once everything's sorted and see if it helps. They do feel more comfortable the bigger the school theyre in.

Hey, thanks Rachel! I'll give that a shot when I trade up on the tank.