Peppering

[daboo]

Some of my discus have Pidgeon Blood ancestry so they developed some peppering being in my tank - they had little from the source(s) I got them. At first I had a medium blue background on my aquarium which looked dark blue because of light refraction through the glass (my light source is immediately above the aquarium). My gravel is also a light tan color. Since it was claimed dark backgrounds (or dark gravel) can promote peppering I changed my background to a very light blue-teal color which looks sort of bluish-greenish-greyish, again because of light refraction through glass but it is lighter than before. When the lights are off the background is the color I painted it.

It has been about 3 weeks and the peppering has not changed on my discus. I also have Mopani wood and plants in this tank. I wonder if this can also promote peppering.

[hedut]

Pegion strain most of the peperring, base on my experiance, light color onthe bottom like white will help a lot even I have blue background and if still pepering than fish quality. Cause some pegion will have clean body too

[smiley]

I have read somewhere that there are some chemicals these days to reduce peppering.Is it so?

[mmorris]

No, sorry.

[David Rose]

IMO, it can be a matter of age and stress levels depending on tankmate's sizes and personalities. Some of my yonger smaller discus, it increases/decreases over weeks/months. Perhaps they'll grow out of it.

[daboo]

My discus don't really have much stress, it is a peaceful tank. From my signature you can see what I else I have. Everyone gets along fine. A discus' most aggressive tankmate would be another discus. Sometimes one chases another around but nothing serious. The biggest discus - the king of the group - has a fair amount of peppering that hasn't changed.

I have heard too that they can grow out of it. I'll see what happens in the months ahead since they range between 3-5 inches.