Remaining 5 are black more than not

[Jack L]

question, i'm down to 5 discus. i've always had more than that at once. these guys are always fighting with each other and staring each other down.

they are eating well, breathing fine, not clamped fins, but they are almost permanently black

could they be black just due to aggression?

[Second Hand Pat]

question, i'm down to 5 discus. i've always had more than that at once. these guys are always fighting with each other and staring each other down.

they are eating well, breathing fine, not clamped fins, but they are almost permanently black

could they be black just due to aggression?

Do you have black substrate or background?
Pat

[CliffsDiscus]

Any pictures?

[Jack L]

i believe the two on the right, are the same as the two front and center in second pic. there are 10 months in between pics

maybe about 5 months ago, i put some them in a q tank to treat for a bacteria(cloudy puffed eye), it reversed it in the blue diamonds for a while, but they started looking bad again and died..
anyway, in the q tank they went non black with the same water. put back in display tank, black again

now and then they aren't black, mostly they are though. just a minute ago the one dropped all black and was full of color over in corner of tank, but by the time i got phone when back to black.

jan 2019
discus black jan 2019 - Copy.jpg
nov 2019
discus black nov 2019 - Copy.jpg

[Willie]

Those are healthy looking fish. Discus are more colorful in a planted tank and the black filter and background is likely making the fish darken. These are also pretty old fish and the classic blues tend to darken with age. Just enjoy them.

[Jack L]

Do you have black substrate or background?
Pat

Planted tank, sand bottom, middle of background is black where it hides the overflow

[Jack L]

so i put in new purigen, made a difference. so something in the water was bothering them that purigen helped with. and water test kits i have, did not really tell me anything. water parameters stable, nitrate lower than its ever been.

[jeep]

I'm not sure of your previous issues, but mine did the same thing when all I did was change the background of the tank.

Before
challenge 127.jpg

After - they're actually darker than they appear in this photo..
challenge 140.jpg

[Jack L]

ummm, are these the same fish?

[jeep]

they were from the same tank and batch, yes. All of them turned very dark because of the rock background but they are perfectly healthy...

[Jack L]

wow, at first glance they look like different strains

[jeep]

I know. I was really surprised at the change the background made. They are on this thread and you can see the change in the past page or two...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-out-challenge

[Mando]

I’m just worried that the OP mentions “down to five.” I’m assuming he is losing fish overtime. I agree that the background plays a huge role but something else could be going on.

[Jack L]

I’m just worried that the OP mentions “down to five.” I’m assuming he is losing fish overtime. I agree that the background plays a huge role but something else could be going on.

they are about 5 years old now. yeah, they have died off over the years. raised them from nickles. when little lost a couple to ICH due to careless qtank procedure. later poor water quality is to blame, i was trying to minimize maintenance of sump, it was a nitrate factory. i abandoned that method.

down to five was just to mention the smaller school size.

the strains expired within time clusters of each other too.

[Mando]

they are about 5 years old now. yeah, they have died off over the years. raised them from nickles. when little lost a couple to ICH due to careless qtank procedure. later poor water quality is to blame, i was trying to minimize maintenance of sump, it was a nitrate factory. i abandoned that method.

down to five was just to mention the smaller school size.

the strains expired within time clusters of each other too.

Oh, I thought you were losing them recently. You got these guys to a beautiful shape!!! I have one turq that is always dark and once in a while it's displaying a beautiful color, but as soon as I put the phone in his face to take a pic, he's dark again. It's definitely my black bottom and black background that's causing this.