I have a 110 gallson planted tank with cardinal tetras, bristlenose plecos, clown loaches, 3 pigeon blood discus, 3 red turks and 3 red marlboro's. The tank has been set up just over a year and doing really well. The latest additons were the marlboro reds and I've had them for 4-5 months. I change the water twice a week and each time do a 50% change. The temp. is about 86. I feed a variety including flakes for discus, pellets, frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms. So here's my question: One of the marlboro reds have lost the red colour. There's some white patches which kinda look like my pigeon blood. The other day I noticed it and thought it WAS one of the pigeon bloods. The other 2 look the same. Any idea why he lost his colour?
Why is my marlboro discus losing it's colour?
- Thread starter Diann62
- Start date
How old and how big is the marlboro? When you say losing color (geting pale), do you mean changing color?
I tried to post a pic but I'm having problems with the camera. The fish is about 4". It's the largest I have and when I first saw it, I thought man the pigeon blood has really grown. Then I realized it was the marlboro red. I'll keep trying on the pic.
is the change in coloration even or mottled? is it acting healthy otherwise (even gill function, activity, etc)?
Here's a pic with my marlboro red and the one that's faded, and another with just the faded fish.
Those "spots" are normal for a Marlboro red. There is variation within the strain and not all are solid. However, if you are talking about how pale it is then your fish may either be sick or you aren't feeding enough carotonids to get it to color up nicely like you want. Frozen bloodworms, Tetra Color Bits, Spirulina loaded shrimp, and others will help the fish to color up more.
Diann - I'm wondering if the fish was being fed a lot of color enhancing food prior to you getting it and now you're seeing the true color of the fish. While they don't all look alike, this one is quite pale and wouldn't be as sellable without color enhancing. Some color enhancing is done through foods and some through hormones. You shouldn't have to overdose on carotenoids in order to have the fish show it's true colors. There's a bit of beta-carotene in a lot of fish foods already. In my opinion, that fish will never color up to be like the other one. As long as the discus is eating and growing that's the important thing now. If you got them from a breeder, you might want to drop the breeder an email asking what the fish were fed on before you got them. I do believe that marlboro reds are also a pigeon blood based fish. Take a look at the photos here and look at the variations within the strain:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=...&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
And it's not just discus, I've seen young german blue rams colored up way too early for their age. Then they loose the brilliant colors after a while in your on tank.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=...&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
And it's not just discus, I've seen young german blue rams colored up way too early for their age. Then they loose the brilliant colors after a while in your on tank.
It's just weird because I bought all three at the same time. The other 2 marlboro reds have retained their colour, it's just this one. I'm just happy to know that it's probably not sick.