Peppering. Which Strains?

[Surferdave]

First off, I just wanted to say that this message board is extremely informative, I'm very new to discus and the amount of information on this website and forum are incredible. On to my question, So I just setup a planted discus tank, and from what I read, having a dark substrate, dark background and plants can all effect peppering in Pigeon blood discus. My first question is, what strains are Pigeon? Right now I have 6 juveniles in my 60 gallon tank, the blue diamond does not show any peppering, but I have a golden sunrise, yellow diamond and checkered pigeon which are peppered. The pigeon being the most so, the yellow diamond only has a few specks here and there. Are leopards or snake skins affected? What about San Merah's, Rose Reds, Marlboro Reds? Any insight would be helpful, as I would like to keep the color nature of additional fish I put in true.

D.

[RickMay1]

The fastest way to tell if a fish is of a non Pigeon and won’t show peppering is if the fish has vertical stripes (sometimes called stress bars). If they have vertical bars they wont show peppering, like Snakeskins or red turks. I believe that what peppering is residual pigment that in a non pigeon blood fish would normally be found in the vertical bars. There are other strains of discus that do not have vertical bars, and are non pigeon blood, If I’m not mistaken (correct me if I’m wrong) are the results of crosses with “ghost” discus which are throws from Alenquer discus. Your blue diamonds are of this kind, and won’t show peppering. There are blue fish that look similar to blue diamond but are pigeon bloods like the Wattley pandas

San Merah's, Rose Reds, Marlboro Reds are all pigeon blood fish but you can find fish that are clean (no peppering) those are the fish you want.

[Surferdave]

Rick, thanks for the input. If I were to put a clean (non peppered) adult San Merah or any other Pigeon Blood discus in my tank would it develop peppering over time? Or does the peppering only occur in fish that are growing from juvenile to adulthood? I'm sure some of it is based on genetics of the fish as well. Thanks again.

David.

[RickMay1]

You can’t be sure that any pigeon bloods won’t show peppering, given different environment variables they might. It’s less likely for a clean adult to show peppering, but it can happen but it would be far less than a younger discus that is showing peppering.