Discus black bars and peppering?

[metsfan421]

Hello,

I am new to keeping discus and currently have 9 of them in a heavily planted tank. I noticed some of them have black bars on them and some are peppering. I was wondering if this is a bad thing. I do water changes regularly sometimes 50% but mostly 25% a day. I feed them hikari bookworms, and frozen bloodworms, but have read that feeding them frozen bloodworms may not be the best thing for them. Do these changes in them reverse ie: the bars and the peppering? The tank has 0 nitrites and nitrates and no ammonia as it's heavily planted and was cycled months ago. I keep the water temp between 83 and 84 degrees with a finnex heater and finnex temperature controller. I keep the PH between 6.6 and 6.7 with the use of pressurized CO2 and a PH Meter. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[metsfan421]

LOL sorry, hikari bloodworms.. damn autocorrect!

[niqhil]

What is the color of background and substrate ? They do affect the color causing them to become dark and peppering on pigeon bloods.

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[metsfan421]

What is the color of background and substrate ? They do affect the color causing them to become dark and peppering on pigeon bloods.

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I have a black background because I think it looks best with plants. Its the regular background that you can buy from the LFS. My substrate is currently the black eco-complete.

[Madaboutdiscus]

How big are they? What colors? Do you have pics? Up your water changes to 50% daily and feed them a good quality diet like beef heart and als freeze dried black worms. How often do you feed them? If they're small I'd suggest doing bare bottom tank until they're grown. If your background or substrate is dark that would cause the peppering but if they don't normally have the black bars then they're possibly stressed.

~Victoria

[Skip]

Eddie.. everything you listed are issues that cause fish with pigeon blood genetics to PEPPER.. or non PB fish to get darker color
you can't do anything except to pull it all out.. and go bare bottom with painted bottom and back.. with light color but thats what happens when you have discus in a planted tank..

is it normal? yes..

is it desirable? its personal choice..

[metsfan421]

Eddie.. everything you listed are issues that cause fish with pigeon blood genetics to PEPPER.. or non PB fish to get darker color
you can't do anything except to pull it all out.. and go bare bottom with painted bottom and back.. with light color but thats what happens when you have discus in a planted tank..

is it normal? yes..

is it desirable? its personal choice..

Ok just making sure there's nothing wrong with the fish. They don't have bare bottoms and painted backgrounds in the wild so, not sure why I'd want to keep them in that environment. It doesn't sound like it would look that good either. Can they change their colors completely back if I buy a new tank and go that route eventually? Thanks for the info!

[Skip]

Ok just making sure there's nothing wrong with the fish. They don't have bare bottoms and painted backgrounds in the wild so, not sure why I'd want to keep them in that environment. It doesn't sound like it would look that good either. Can they change their colors completely back if I buy a new tank and go that route eventually? Thanks for the info!

yea.. well your discus haven't been anywhere near the amazon for many generations......... and have been raised in bb or planted for a long time now.. BB tanks are much easier to clean and maintain then planted.. as for looks.. i want the fish to be the center piece.. not a java fern.

but back to your question..

YES.. absolutely.. if you were to change their environment.. they darkness they have would lighten up for sure.. pepper may or may not go away.. its also a genetic thing.. that environment can enhance or not

[Ryan]

You don't have to use a bare bottom tank to get your fish to lighten up. The secret is to use light colored substrate. If you're using a dark or black sand under them, they will darken up.

Keep in mind that peppering can be influenced by genetics. Some pigeons will have pepper regardless of your tank color. I have seen very high quality, clean pigeons in black background tanks that don't show one speck of pepper. So the lighter substrate may not solve your problem with those fish, but it's something you can try.

Some young non-pigeon fish show their bars as juveniles, even with lighter colored tanks. These often fade with age, given that the fish aren't in a dark environment and they are not stressed. They will come back in times of annoyance, anger, courting, dominance, etc. but they are rarely shown all the time.

[Argentum]

Things you can do to reduce the peppering:

White or light blue background. You can also try the glazed background with back light it looks amazing


Cover the eco complete with white sand.