Whitespotted Filefish - unusual behavior?

[Grajan]

According to the Reef Fish Identification book Whitespotted Filefish have a spotted and non-spotted phase. I assume this to mean that they change once in their life, or at least slowly.

I was watching a pair of them in Bonaire last week and the smaller of the two transitioned from plain (rust) color to highly spotted and then back again in the space of about ten seconds. I have a bad video clip of this behavior. Questions:

Is this normal or abnormal behavior?
If it is abnormal is there anywhere I can report it?

Thanks

 

[Charlie99]

Sounds pretty normal. Fish have rapid color changes for a variety of reasons ---- mating displays and aggression/warning displays are common in many different species.

 

[Walter]

It's common.

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Yes, totally normal behaviour

 

[archman]

I used to have a pigfish in an aquarium, that normally exhibited drab all-around-silvery coloration. But if I fed it, poof! The thing would miraculously break out with thick black stripes in 4-7 seconds. Some of my students mistook it for a different fish in the tank!

 

[Grajan]

Thanks everyone for the info. It was certainly interesting to watch - ore dramatic than any color change behavior I have seen before.