Pigeon blood discus reduce or lower peppering

[dvsrk]

Hello,

I have couple of pigeon blood discus and they are showing peppering on them. I know it is very common with pigeon blood discus but I was trying to check if I can lower or control the peppering affect. By some forum suggestions I have installed bright led light fixture with white bare bottom & white backgroud in my tank and I'm having couple of driftwood pieces as decor in my tank.

Question:
1) I have two options in my light fixture daylight & moonlight(blue). I usually turn OFF the lights completely at 11:00PM and turn ON them at 06:00AM. But i would like to check if I can turn moonlight setting ON over the night instead of turning the light completely OFF and will that help anyway reducing the peppering affect instead of leaving the tank in dark overnight.

Appreciate if you can provide any other suggestions in reducing or avoiding peppering affect on my discus.

Thank you.

[Willie]

Generally a light background reduces peppering. Anything dark in the tank will exacerbate it. In my experience, bright lights have no effect.

Best thing to do is to grow them up as fast as possible. The number of dark spots is finite. As the fish gets bigger, the same spots get spread out over a much larger area. So very big fish are going to look much less peppered.

Good luck, Willie

[Paul Sabucchi]

The bloke who bred my red melons reckons softer water reduces peppering (he lives in a place where the water is so hard it makes a klunk rather than a splash as it comes out of the tap). I think it is 95% down to genetics

[Filip]

Agree with Willie .My pigeons looked much more peppered when they were 2 inch juvies compared to current 6 inch adult size. So they should look better as they grow .
White styrofoam or paint under the tank along with white background can also help . Moon light has nothing to do with peppering but you can leave it on if you want to have an ambiental tank light during the nights .