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need help here

i kept my clown and their relative cousin (zebra loach and blue@red fin loach) for 1 years already today! and all of them are doing well at the moment.

everyday after work i will observed these cute creatures eating like pig! something i notice is that the clown sometime change their color, they turn to grey, but only for a short period of time and then back to normal, i'm not sure why is that is that good or bad sign?

That can be a complicated one to answer.

Loaches will periodically heighten or lower skin tones to indicate emotional state, but the changes are usually so subtle that people dont notice them.

If stress is involved and feeding sites very competition heavy, blanching out may simply be stress and suboordination, with the lack of colour trying to look non-competitive.

If your tank is stocked the the upper end of its available dissolved oxygen limit, fish may blanche out suffering lack of oxygen after the intense activity of feeding.Often you will notice the gill tissue becoming darker than normal , while the rest of the fish pales. Easy solutions to this include either reducing stocking density, or increasing the available oxygen with more bubble stones , surface disturbance, or my personal favourite, venturi oxygenating nozzles. Tanks verging on the absolute limit of stocking density may well experience brief ammonia spikes around feeding times, and this will never do wonders for any given fish's colour, as it affects respiration. Keeping this under control requires rethinking stocking, performing more regular and perhaps larger water changes,reducing feed sizes and generally keeping a cleaner tank.Its basically a general maintenance issue. Doing a water test or two will soon tell you if this is the problem.

The last and least desireable option is that the fish are being overfed, and that they are so engorged with food that it is actually causing circulatory issues, and the gut is having to draw blood away from the external skin tissues to cope with the massive digestive requirement.

This is the one you have to watch, blanching in fish at feeding times is often a pre-cursor symptom associated with the onset of various conditions, from swim bladder failure, to dropsy, and constipation, all of which are conditions that can be severely aggravated by overfeeding. This is especially important if your fish are already on the noticeably chubby side. I know people like their fish to look chubby, but often a more svelte fish is the happier , healthier fish. Rectifying health damage for the obese fish has to be one of the most difficult parts of the hobby.Fully adult obese fish do not usually survive, as the fats can never be removed from the liver once in, but younger fish may have a chance to metabolise that fat into new growth and if you can keep their diet sensible, they have a chance to grow out of the risk a little.

Try offering smaller amounts, on more regular intervals and see if this makes the blanching less noticeable.

Give us some info about your tank and your stocking density, and we can help you work out the most probable cause.

The last and least desireable option is that the fish are being overfed, and that they are so engorged with food that it is actually causing circulatory issues, and the gut is having to draw blood away from the external skin tissues to cope with the massive digestive requirement.

Now that is really interesting. I never knew that and I think I'm facing the same issue. I've often seen my yoyo loaches (they eat like pigs) lying in their hiding places with swollen tummies and lightened colors. I always used to think what was wrong there! Thanks for the info longhairedgit.
Loaches can change color dramatically quick though. Try feeding them what they like most (in my case, blood worms) and their colors come back instantaneously.