Clear Cory Catfish?

I have 2 Albino Cory catfish, they have been best buds since I moved them into my community tank with 2 mollies. They have been active and playful for weeks now. I’m noticing my smaller catfish (Bon JovI lol) is turning clear?? I can see his little spine through his body. The other catfish (Farquaad) is nice and silvery/pink like he’s supposed to be. I’m concerned about Bon Jovi’s declining coloring.

I feed the entire tank tropical fish flakes, and then I add sinking bottom feeder pellets once a day.

Parameters are good, nitrite and ammonia are at 0 or undetectable on my test strips. Nitrate is around 10-20. I have an in-tank heater set to ~79F.

I attached pictures of him. Does he look discolored to you catfish experts? I’m a little paranoid because I just lost a betta fish (different tank) to some mysterious fast moving fungus I’m assuming, so I’m nervous about cross-contamination. However the rest of the fish in the tank look healthy.

Any advice or insight is very appreciated! I love these goofy little dudes and I want to make sure they’re healthy and safe.

 

It could just be a change in colour naturally. I'm going to tag DoubleDutch to try and help you because I know hes pretty good with cories

 

I'd try to feed some more Coryspecific food. Could be a lack of the right protein.
Could you place a pic of the pellets for bottomfeeders ?

 

He doesn't look unhealthy, I have not seen any but my smaller albino juvies look like that (hadn't yet gotten the white/pink coloration).

 

Not to be doom and gloom but the same thing happened to one of my albino and he died. So now I have 1 lone albino in that tank. I'm curious if someone figures out what it is. Hopefully he gets better.

 

Ok, this is my food lineup. I feed the NG tropical fish flakes twice a day. I feed the API bottom feeder pellets once a day or every other day.
I just purchased the Top Fin blood worms and algae thins today, and they seemed to be able to much on the larger algae wafers more easily than the pellets.

I also added a picture of my other catfish for reference. It’s a little distorted shape-wise because they were rooting around in the corner of the tank, but you can tell how the one on the left is more pink than the one on the right.

Unless I’m concerned about the wrong fish.... does the one on the left look TOO pink? I’m new to the hobby, so I’m second guessing myself a lot as I’m still learning.

Any advise is very appreciated! Thank you to everyone who’s already given their opinions, it means a lot to me.

 

Cories need a protein based diet not algae, a strict algae diet will kill them.

 

Any food recommendations, then? I’m very open to suggestions! I wanna do what’s best for them, and I often read conflicting pieces of advice.

I just purchased the algae wafers today, so they’ve only been fed them once. Otherwise they’ve been eating the bottom feeder pellets

 

HikarI Algae wafers isn't just algae - they have protein in them too. Not sure about others. I'm no expert here, but your blend of food sounds fine.

Is there different substrate in this tank then the other? I know moving my emerald green cory's from a dark substrate to sandy light substrate dramatically altered their appearance - not sure if it was just the optics or something changed in them too.

 

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HikarI Algae wafers isn't just algae - they have protein in them too. Not sure about others. I'm no expert here, but your blend of food sounds fine.

Is there different substrate in this tank then the other? I know moving my emerald green cory's from a dark substrate to sandy light substrate dramatically altered their appearance - not sure if it was just the optics or something changed in them too.

I actually have the tank half and half, white sand on one side and black gravel on the other. I wasn’t sure which they’d prefer (or which I’d prefer to be honest) so my plan was to switch completely to one or the other depending on how they gravitated, but they seem happy exploring bth sides. And the mix complements my Dalmatian mollies really well.
In your experience, could the color contrasts be confusing to them, causing the coloring differences maybe?

 

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I actually have the tank half and half, white sand on one side and black gravel on the other. I wasn’t sure which they’d prefer (or which I’d prefer to be honest) so my plan was to switch completely to one or the other depending on how they gravitated, but they seem happy exploring bth sides. And the mix complements my Dalmatian mollies really well.
In your experience, could the color contrasts be confusing to them, causing the coloring differences maybe?

Like I said, I'm not an expert. Cory's to me just like food - I don't think they care as long as it isn't a sharp gravel type substrate. I just noticed a difference from one tank to the other , could be also lighting as one had fluorescent and the other LED.