Bright Blue Color

[Georgios48]

Hi,
I keep discus for several years and I am a rather experienced hobbyist.
The central part of the body of my “blue type” discus (e.g. solid blue) turns to dark brown as the fish gets larger and older. They don’t show any sign of sickness because all fishes eating three times a day, are fat and grown up. I feed them with Tetra bits, flakes and once a week bloodworms. Any help how can I get this light bright blue color I see in pictures?

[chirohorn]

Try going w/a lighter background. As you know, fish can be 'moody' & change color intensity quite easily dependent on environmental conditions. Also, with photo taking, the flash will often make fish appear lighter than in reality. HTH.

[Ralph]

Background and tank floor can make a huge change. I moved a red from a gravel bottom to one with white sand and he looked like a different fish.

You can experiment with colored paper to see how it responds.

[Georgios48]

Thank you Ralph and Chirohorn.
I post a photo so you can get a better idea of my aquarium. (135 gallons, 150w metal halide + 76w fluorescent, CO2, ozone reactor etc).
IMO the type or the quantity of food has something to do with color darkening but I can not exactly specify the problem.

[Ralph]

Georgios, nice looking tank! I can see that you put a lot of work into that.

I've moved fish into and out of my planted tank and almost all of them get darker in the planted tank. Most likely it is an attempt to camouflage. A background change may not make that much difference. I have a lightly planted tank with a white sand substrate and those fish lightened up significantly. If there are no other signs that you fish may have a problem, they are probably alright.

Are discus readily available in Greece?

[Shari]

Hey Ralph-I've wanted to switch from gravel to sand but haven't figured how to vacum it ??? How do you clean sand? ???

[Ralph]

Hi Shari,
It depends on what kind of sand you have, the size of the sand grains makes a big difference. I use a large grained sand and I can't vacuum it up out of the tank, even if I try. If you have a small grain, you can vacuum slightly above the sand to get the uneaten food and solid waste without vacuuming up your substrate.
Here's a thread on the subject:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=7240

[chirohorn]

Georgios, beautiful tank. Nicely planted. The contrast of the blue & orange colors on the discus are awesome. Reminds me of my tank ;) except your plants are in much better condition due to the lighting provided.