Dark yet healthy?

[glhyne]

Hi all,

Firstly hello to everyone. Excellent site with great advice. Both friendly and informative.

I would appreciate any insight into why some of my discus are showing lots of pepper. I have 6 checkerboard pigeons. None showed any sign of darkness when I purchased them. Two have been getting progressively more peppered as time has gone on (2 months). I think some of the others would be showing pepper but do not have the pigment (dark tails and eyes not as light as they were). The thing is my fish are all confident (come straight up during feeding and maintenance), eating well (beefheart, gamma irradiated bloodworm and tetra prima) with no clamped fins, no hiding and black faeces. My Ammonia/ium, nitirite levels are zero. Not sure of nitrate but the local water company quotes 6ppm. I do 5% water changes daily and 25% per week. Ph is high at 7.8 but I know of other discus keepers that have succesfully kept discus at this pH (if not breeding). I have dosed with Prazi at 2.5mg/l (cedapraz) and repeated after 4 days in case of flukes or tapeworms. After that I fed beefheart mixed with metro at 250mg/100g (7 days). They very occasionally glance/flick but the dark ones are no more guilty of this than any of the others. Breathing is slow and and even (no sticky outy gill plates). I have also switched from using tap water conditioned with tetra aquasafe to a water butt with aged water and have checked with my local water suppliers that they do not use amination (no chloramines). I am also running a vectron UV with the appropriate flow rate. No other obvious signs of external parasites/ciliates.

I have to admit I'm stumped. I know they must be unhappy with the water or have a disease to be going dark but I have no idea what. BTW, they are only 9 months old and still too young to pair off. All suggestions welcome!!! Would salt be a good idea? If so what can discus tolerate in a long term bath. What have people found to be the least toxic (fish and filter) and most effective external parasite meds. Thanks in advance for any help, rgds, Greg

[susantroy1]

Hey Greg,

Welcome to Simply:) Doesn't sound like there is anything wrong with your Fish. PBs will pepper as this is a normal genetic trait of theirs. The experts will be along shortly to give you all you need to know to calm your concerns. This peppering seems to be more intense if their environment is darker (dark background/Substrate) Ever notice almost all breeders sellers have a white/very bright background? You can almost bet that this is to reduce the peppering as this genetic trait is not as appealing as Pepper less fish offered to the public. I also like non-peppered as well and am going to change my background to a much liter one for this reason. It simply is the species way of trying to blend into their environment.


All The Best

Troy

[glhyne]

Hi Tony. Thanks for taking the time to reply. The strange thing is that I have silver sand as a substrate and the fish did not have any peppering when i first got them from Chen's discus. Anyone else?

[Moon]

I agree with Troy. If the fish are active eating well it's just peppering. What size tank and how many fish? You may consider increasing the wc volume to 30% daily.

[susantroy1]

Greg,

Take a look:http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?p=472839#post472839

All The Best

Troy

[glhyne]

Thanks for that link Troy. I do indeed have a dark background. I'll change that and see if it has any effect.

[chemjab]

Thanks for that link Troy. I do indeed have a dark background. I'll change that and see if it has any effect.

I agree with Troy also. My pigeons had no visable peppering when I bought them either. As you can see from the picture in the link that Troy provided, they are very peppered now. Currently they are housed with a black background and black sustrate. (This combo works so well for my Africans.)

So glhyne,
when you make the switch will you do a favor? Actually I would like you to take a pic before with the dark background and peppering and then with the new lighter background. It will probably take some time for the peppering to fade, just like it took some time for it to appear.
It would be great to add those before, durring and after pics to the same link above to have more examples when others have the same question that you and I and many other before have had.

Thanks and let us know of your results,
James

[Don Trinko]

The black tail is normal for PB discus as they grow up. Don T.

[glhyne]

I definately will. I already have photos of the peppered ones and have removed the background altogether. In a couple of weeks, if there is any difference I will post both sets of photos, Greg

[glhyne]

Thought I might post the first set of piccies anyway!

[Enigma]

Hi Guys, I also have a peppering issue with my white butterfly. My background is a med-dark blue and I have a large piece of drift wood. Do you think this is a factor to the peppering? I will be watching your posts and pictures as, I'm very curious. I bought this fish noted to be "New and Improved". I hoped that meant no peppering.
Thanks,
Jess

[takasumi]

OOH! Pick me! Pick me!

I have a discus that looks just like the ones in the pics!
She is the beginning of my discus CRAZE!
I named her Cleopatra. And She's the friendliest and most outgoing discus that I have!

I thought after reading about discus that she was probably a cull but I think that she just doesn't like my orange walls around her tank so she peppers a lot!

Beautiful fish!

Try a darker background. Cleo brightened up after I changed her location to a darker area.