I have gotten fish from Mike Beals & Jeffery Yang. The fish look as intense today if not more so than the day I got them. If this was from others I would have doubts about the hormone usage but given the symptoms I still would think there is something wrong other than "juicing".
Tara Bennett
Phone: 815-876-0516
Agreed. I've own Jeffrey's fish before and they were amazing color from the day I received them (6-7 months) to the day I sold them in order to make room for a different strain.
Now I've own Kenny/Forrest fish and they have lost color over time too, but that doesn't mean they were juice. They lost color because I didn't do a great job taking care of them in my early days of keeping discus. Now a healthy diet and clean water will keep them happy and color vivid.
Fair enough. I don't know either of those people you mentioned so I don't want to flag them as doing something unethical. That's 100% not my intent. I am just going off of my past experiences and how this particular Blue Diamond in question has some really, REALLY weird stuff going on with it. That being said, this is all just my opinion so please take it worth a grain of salt. I for SURE don't want make someone feel bad when there is no proof of my suggestion.
These weren't young fish, adults, proven pair.
I'll add to the folks that have gotten fish from Jeffrey/Mike for MANY years and have fish right now from them that I've had for many years, only added color, never lost it.
I don't think tapes can be ruled out at this point at all.
Keep your eyes on the fish. If the fish starts showing more purple hue then you'll know what ...... The best person to ask is Mr. Andrew Soh.
All, please don't take this thread as me blaming anyone for juicing a fish. And I don't want anyone to blame a specific sponsor or exporter. Know that I'd buy again from Mike in a heartbeat. He sent me what I asked and paid for, why they changed in MY tanks and my care is the mystery. What I'm saying is when I agree with those against the worm theories is I've never personally seen this as an effect of worms or other parasites so I have to side on the side from what I have seen these effects from in other types of fish that have been hormoned. Does that mean these are? Definitely not, and like I said earlier I cannot confirm or deny one way or the other until I worm the fish and see if they rebound any and rule that out.
To those that think these fish are unhealthy. I might beg to differ. Again I see them day in and day out but I have not noticed any changes in weight. The second set of pictures are of a very unflattering angle of the fish with very harsh light from a flash casting bad shadows in some. Please take what you see with a grain of salt and know I snapped those extremely quickly to show the coloration change of the fish. Again, the weight is still there, the eyes are still blood red, the blue thats left on the fins is still a great blue....but the body is basically a white/grey. The fish are being fed a mixture of Cobalt Flakes (Hans type!), Al's worms, Bill's beefheart flakes, and they pick at some of the Tetra colorbits that are put in there for other fish.
I will worm the tank as soon as I can and post the results. Originally going into this my plan was to get rid of these fish in my efforts to downsize in order to convert a tank to African cichlids. Thats still the plan and whats eventually going to happen but this thread has me curious and I will keep these two to see what happens. I appreciate everyones help and opinions and I welcome them as we continue.
-Matt
The coloration is not unheard of:
Taken from:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...OON&highlight=
Ex-President-North American Discus Association-NADA
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Very interesting, thanks for finding that.
-Matt
Just to get an opinion from the other side of the world, I recieve Discus that are from Jeffery Yang via Rod and I can not fault them at all. I have received many BD and other blue strains plus many many others. The Discus are alway better than expected and they are advertised a described in every case 99.9% of the time that way. They are very strong and healthy discus and have yet to have any mojor issue. Around 70% of my Discus are FTZ and I can tell you that the other 30% has not been as easy and have had quiet a few unexpected or unexplainable problems. That is why I will stay with Rod & Jeffery's Discus. Yes I understand that even the best suppliers have an odd bad one here and their that's life.
Thanks Timmy
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Matt, is there any chance of getting a video with a digital camera or a cell phone just to give us an idea of the actual color of the fish in the tank? The whole thing is really bizarre.
I recently got some of Kenny's Spotted Ghosts and the male is a faded blue color. He looks more like a washed out BD. However, he doesn't have bright red eyes and he still has a bar through the eye and the caudal peduncle, characteristic of most ghost types. It's just so puzzling that they lost all their color.
Are the fish truly a pair? (Forgive me if this was posted elsewhere in the thread, I should probably go back and read it all more carefully.) It'd be really interesting to see what they produced, if they could produce anything.
Are you feeding any color enhancer food? something like FDBW with color enhancer?
I recently noticed some reverse effect on bd's, not very sure though.
Now this is a very good thread to keep going Matt. The outcome of the color variation is intriguing. I hope you found the source of the problem if it really is a problem?
DiscusLoverJeff
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