Feedback on my pigon needed!

[elaw]

66125Hey Guys,

Take a look at my pigon blood. Let me know what you think of the coloring. He has some speckling on the face, i'd love some feedback on how to stop this speckling. The tank has a black background is this due to that?

Thanks,

E

[Eddie]

More than likely due to the surrounding but the fish is a pigeon blood and they will show pepper (black speckle/dust).

[elaw]

Thanks.

[prabuddhasarkar]

Ya its a PB.I have white paper surrounding the tank in 3 sides, background,left and right to minimize the peppering.and that also can happen due to black substrate in the tank.do you have a BB tank?
Thanks
prabuddha

[elaw]

I have a semi planted tank with a darker brown colored substrate.

[hedut]

the color is not bad not to much peppering for pigeon type at dark background and dark bottom, kinda long shape but this just me:)

[gixeron1wheel]

How long has this PB been in the setup with the black background and the dark substrate? I personally would get it out of that tank and re-do it to a bare-bottom painted white side. White paper on the sides does not work nearly as good as painted. I have 25 Pigeon Bloods and I know how they react to dark colors and planted tanks... the most of them WILL PEPPER. That goes for any Pigeon Blood line fish. Some fish will pepper more than others. It all has to do with water quality, mood, dominance, and background-substrate-plants.

What I would do is -
1. Unplug your heater. Set up a temporary tank with at least 50% filled from the water of the current tank and filtration from current tank. The water in temp tank should retain its heat for awhile. Leave the heater out of the temp tank for awhile, maybe an hour before putting it in the temp tank and plugging it back in. If you move the heater while hot to a cooler temperature water it will chance shattering.

2. I clean the two sides, back, and bottom with denatured alcohol. What ever you choose to use to clean the glass with, make sure you clean it good and get any greasy fingerprints off.

3. Cover the top and front using masking tape and cardboard. I use Killz Primer in a spray can to paint the tank. It works real nice and dries fast. Whatever white paint that you use, spray it on nice and even. Try to look at it from different angles to see if there are areas that are lighter and spay them if needed.

4. After the paint is completely dry remove the tape and cardboard. I wait for a day to do this but if the paint is completely dry I guess that you could move on. As long as the top of the tank was sealed up tight, there should not be any paint residue inside but it would not hurt to carefully give it a rinse. Don't scratch your new paint job!

5. Do the same water, filtration, and heater move as you did for the temp tank back to the painted tank.

I have seen peppering start to disappear as soon as overnight. Sometimes you might be left with light spots that are barely noticeable. Remember, your fish rely on good water quality no matter what kind of tank that they are in! In my experiences, if they pepper in a bare bottom tank they are trying to tell you something!

[Eddie]

It's funny how people describe peppering.

When a fish goes near a dark object, it tends to darken/blend in. Its the nature of the fish. So when a pigeon blood is in a tank with dark objects (wood, rocks), dark substrate, dark backgrounds...what does it do....it will pepper. If you put the fish in a white tank, with no objects, the peppering will diminish but the fish can still have it. It never EVER goes away, just displays less. The amount of peppering a fish CAN express is genetics. Some of today pigeons are almost pepper free so even in a dark environment, they can't show much pepper due to selective breeding.

[gixeron1wheel]

These two fish are the same age, from the same parents, from the same batch of eggs. The color difference in the pictures is from the different lights on the tanks. As you can see the fish in the darker planted tank shows peppering. The fish without the peppering looked the same before I moved it to the white sided tank. Notice that the fins even have cleared up.

The parents are 100% pepper free and are in a painted white side BB tank. Well...maybe I just cant see the invisible peppering because it never EVER goes away, only displays less!

Has anyone ever read anything on the theory Pigeon Blood based fish show "pepper" when non-Pigeon Blood based fish show stress bars? Peppering is not only genetics and environment color. Quit doing water changes, throw in a big bully, quit cleaning the tank, and give a poor diet even in a white bare bottom tank and you will see a PB based show tons of black specks.

I appreciate all of the advise on this site and seek it very often, but this is one topic that I know about. So elaw, if you don't want your fish to show the black specks "pepper" - look at my pictures and follow my advise this time. Or, if you know that your fish are in healthy conditions and you live with the specks, leave them in the dark tank and they will be fine.

[elaw]

Thanks everyone for the help and advice. I'm really not sure what to do, i love the planted tank and the bb isn't my first option so i may just have to live with it. Gixeron1wheel - nice discus, i love the 2nd pic and thanks for the advise.

[Eddie]

These two fish are the same age, from the same parents, from the same batch of eggs. The color difference in the pictures is from the different lights on the tanks. As you can see the fish in the darker planted tank shows peppering. The fish without the peppering looked the same before I moved it to the white sided tank. Notice that the fins even have cleared up.

The parents are 100% pepper free and are in a painted white side BB tank. Well...maybe I just cant see the invisible peppering because it never EVER goes away, only displays less!

Has anyone ever read anything on the theory Pigeon Blood based fish show "pepper" when non-Pigeon Blood based fish show stress bars? Peppering is not only genetics and environment color. Quit doing water changes, throw in a big bully, quit cleaning the tank, and give a poor diet even in a white bare bottom tank and you will see a PB based show tons of black specks.

I appreciate all of the advise on this site and seek it very often, but this is one topic that I know about. So elaw, if you don't want your fish to show the black specks "pepper" - look at my pictures and follow my advise this time. Or, if you know that your fish are in healthy conditions and you live with the specks, leave them in the dark tank and they will be fine.

You are basically proving what I have stated above, not sure where you're NOT understanding. Take the fish from the white tank, put it in a dark substrate tank and the peppering will come right back. Do you honestly believe its dissappeared forever? LOL

[strawberryblonde]

Yup yup, what Eddie says is true. I purchased one MB for my planted community tank and my only concessions (just for him) was to paint the background blue instead of black and to use grey sand with white pebbles on the foreground substrate.

I knew that, even doing this, there would still be some peppering, but my hope was that it would be "liveable". So far it is. He has a couple of small dots on his face...up near his fin and a bit of black on the edge of his dorsal fin.

The peppering comes and goes depending on his mood that day and even the time of day. If he was a show quality fish, I'd definitely move him to a lighter tank, but he's not, he's just part of the pack in my family friendly tank.

So long as you don't mind the peppering, keep your tank the way it is. Otherwise you'll need to do BB and light backgrounds. Water quality and stress play a large part in my fishes coloring, so watch those things too.