discus with "thread extension" on top fin

[judy]

Two turquoise babies I kept from my pair's first batch have now grown up and I just noticed the other day that both of them has this neat little thready "trailer" at the back of the top fin. Neither parent did. Is this a recessive genetic factor? Could I be lucky enough to get thse consistently in future batches?

[seanyuki]

Male discus fish quite often develop long filamented streamers on their dorsal fins.....perhaps a picture would be nice.

[Mr Wild]

I have a female with one, thought it was a male but laid eggs, that kind of clinched it LOL

[judy]

Here's a not very good pic...
http://www.wordsink.ca/IMG_2744.JPG

[mikel]

IMO these trailers are awesome!!!! Like little flags! I think mostly males get these, but females can have shorter versions of it too. mike:)

[William Palumbo]

As Kath said, my wild Blue female has a trailer, along with her mate. It seems like some strains develop them while others don't. I know in my early years, it was speculated that those trailers were a hormone thing...from feeding hormoned BH. But back then, there were a lot of "speculations" out there, that never proved to be true...Bill

[judy]

well, these two have never been fed hormones. I really hope future batches from the parents have the little streamers. I just love 'em. I think I kept a same-sex pair, so will try to keep other sex in the next batch. When it comes-- the parents don't often get in the mood, but they sure like being together all on their own in their spawning tank.

[vss]

I'm also kind of confused about this feature. I don't have a conclusion yet, so just some of my observations:

1. the majority of fish which has trailer developed is male (there're females with trailer as well, just not common)

2. Dr. Ed Schmidt documented in his book that not until they started using beefheart as the diet that they found a discus with trailers.

3. I don't think I have seen a single wild discus having this feature when they were caught.

4. this feature is seen most often on turqs, either solid or striated, and also turq-related strains.

5. with the same care, some male have this feature, while some don't.

So I guess this feature is related to gender, strain and diet (either protein or hormone related)

In my tank there're two males having trailers developed. The blue knight cross has more significant trailers (have already had 3 trailers developed as shown on the picture, and still growing now). I never hormoned my fish, and the diet is pretty diverse. When I was feeding them with salmon-tuna mix, the trailer started to show up, and later I switched to beef-salmon mix and beef-shrimp mix, and it keeps developing. Maybe all the meat and sea food I used contain hormone? :confused:


-Xiaofei :)

[Letigrama]

I am actually so glad about this post as I always wandered about that feature. I have a couple of my fish having the trailer, one is a female and shes a turq.I think is a nice feature!

[roclement]

IMO

You don't see trail fins in wilds because they are targeted by small fish, almost like a snack for tetras to nip on...I have seen many wild fish with no trails develop them after being kept in captivity.

Also better quality foods, and stress free environment are know fact to help better color, finage, and growth in fish so no surprise there! Hormones don't seem to be the issue but having food available freely, no predators trying to eat you, or pesky tetras nibbling at the fins seem like a much better reason for discus to develop trails in their fins then some mystery hormone induced mutation...

I have had many old school briliant discus with trails, as well as wilds in the past, seems more difficult to find them now, maybe because the emphasis of breeding seems to be in body shape and color, and less on finnage (???), asking here, not stating...I miss some of the big fish with the long streamers out there...why don't more people post pictures!?

Rod