Pleco help!

[Liamr15]

Hi, I'm new to this page so thanks for having me, I currently have a tropical tank with 3 male guppies and common pleco around 5 inches, the only issue I have is the pleco keeps losing colour from day to day it changes sometimes he looks amazing some times he has loads of faded patches anyone know why this is?

[TropicalFishForums]

[VikingMummy2015]

Does he look paler just after the tank lights are switched on, then improve over the next few hours? It's common for a lot of fish to change their colour in the dark (presumably to avoid becoming a snack whilst sleeping).

[Liamr15]

He just does it randomly only lasts an hour or so, think it may be stress not sure thou

[Gingerlove05]

Hello and welcome
Fish do colour up and down through the day, it can be an indication of stress but as VM has said they will often colour down at night.
What size is the tank and what are you feeding? These can also be factors depending on the nutrients they are getting, also common plecos get to be huge in size.

[Liamr15]

Wafers and cucumber as a try once a week and only 20 gallon we are growing him out for a friend's 6 foot tank, he's healthly I think as hes grown an inch this month already

[plankton]

They do grow quickly.
They also change colour pretty randomly. Sometimes it's camouflage, sometimes mood, and occasionally stress, but plecs only really get stressed if their environment is completely wrong as a rule (commons and bristlenoses anyway).

[blackghost]

Actually it's showing the typical stress pattern of a P. gibbiceps.

[Liamr15]

Thanks black ghost, I thought them same just can't work out why as hes been fine the past 3 weeks and then all off a sudden doing it , water tests fine other fish are all OK just confusing me why he'd be stressed

[blackghost]

Tank too small, nowhere to hide/sleep, nowhere that's actually dark, lights too bright, wrong temperature, water too hard, not enough water changes, lack of camouflage... they change their colours to try to blend in with the substrate. Some of our substrate colours are very confusing for them, to say the least. On brightly coloured gravel they all look like yours.