Black Tail and peppering

[aquadon2222]

So I've got about 5 fish that fall under the pigeonblood strain - reds/orange patterned. Any way their tail and fins are darkening, and some are peppering on the face and forehead. Is this a stress response, an adaptation to a new color background, maturity, or what? As long as it's not a sign of stress to the fish I'm ok with it, although I will say that I don't like the way it looks. Anything I can do to keep them from peppering up so much?

[nc0gnet0]

Is this a stress response, an adaptation to a new color background, maturity, or what?

It could be any of the above, or a combination.


Anything I can do to keep them from peppering up so much?

A light background, soft water, avoid the lower spectrum on the lighting, and water that is clean.

[Skip]

What color is substrate?

[Rudustin]

Could you please post a picture of these fish?

[Allwin]

light colored background/substrate + good protein food + enough wc are helpful to avoid peppering in more cases. Hopefully the fishes has got some growth left.

[sholvey]

I Have heard per Hans that the pigeon blood strain can pepper if the environment they're in is dark. I bought a blue pigeon blood from him and mine started to pepper. I have a BBT to grow them out, with no background and the tank is well lit. The only thing I thought is since the tank is in the basement, the only lighting down in my room is the aquarium lighting. I have since kept some lighting on in the room and the peppering seemed to have stopped. As it was suggested, maybe a pic would help.

Sean

[OC Discus]

I've seen some large pb without peppering that are amazingly beautiful. I think it is a combination of genetics and surroundings. Peppering and darkening is a sign of stress, like the stress bars in other discus- they fade in and out due to stress. The pb does not have the bars, but peppering can occur where the bars would normally be, on the face, and sometimes all over the body. Darkening can be a sign of sickness. If a fish turns black for an extended period of time, it is more than minor stress and some action is required.

My blue pb can be meditating in his favorite spot and look almost pure white (besides the colorful striations). Other times, the peppering shows up more heavily. On my fire red, the peppering is mostly on the face, but it seems to increase and decrease randomly based on how he feels.

[aquadon2222]

Many thanks for the input. With mine it's mostly the black tail and partially on the fins - I only have one that's got noticeable peppering on the forehead, but none of them act sick - they play and eat like pigs. My substrate is light sand, but my background is pitch black AND my lighting is way too "yellow", which I'm changing out to a bluer light. Will send some pics later.

[Ryan]

A lot of pigeon bloods, even those with "clean" bodies that lack pepper, still develop black tails and sometimes black pectoral fins. This is fairly common and shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. It's part of the pigeon blood trait. Some varieties don't carry it but most traditional pigeon varieties do.

The biggest factors are stress and tank color. A dark environment (dark substrate, dark background, lots of dark driftwood, etc.) will cause any discus to darken. Cichlids tend to want to blend into their surroundings. When a pigeon-type darkens, pepper tends to show. Keeping them over light/white sand or painting the tank a light color will alleviate this response. Good quality water with low nitrates/DOC is also important. If you don't keep discus in clean water they will show that they're unhappy -- dull eyes, dull colors, stress bars/peppering, and so on.

It should be noted that discus also turn dark when breeding and rearing fry, so pigeons will also pepper up then.

[Allwin]

+1 Well explained!!!


A lot of pigeon bloods, even those with "clean" bodies that lack pepper, still develop black tails and sometimes black pectoral fins. This is fairly common and shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. It's part of the pigeon blood trait. Some varieties don't carry it but most traditional pigeon varieties do.

The biggest factors are stress and tank color. A dark environment (dark substrate, dark background, lots of dark driftwood, etc.) will cause any discus to darken. Cichlids tend to want to blend into their surroundings. When a pigeon-type darkens, pepper tends to show. Keeping them over light/white sand or painting the tank a light color will alleviate this response. Good quality water with low nitrates/DOC is also important. If you don't keep discus in clean water they will show that they're unhappy -- dull eyes, dull colors, stress bars/peppering, and so on.

It should be noted that discus also turn dark when breeding and rearing fry, so pigeons will also pepper up then.