White Butterfly discus (white pigeons)

[R1_Ridah]

Stress bars is just a common term for the bars. They're no different than the bars you see on things like severums. The fish can turn them on and off depending on their environment and mood. Some people also call them mood bars.

Most wild discus show these bars if kept in a planted or decorated tank. It's a way of trying to blend in and camouflage itself with its surroundings. Wilds can turn their bars off, though. If you look at certain wild fish kept in bare bottom, light colored tanks you will see that they don't keep the bars all the time. I've seen this a lot on wild browns, heckels, and greens.

So I'd think that if they show the bars they are more comfortable correct?

I guess I'm sorta comparing it to a Datnoid whereas when the BAR shows, is when they are stable. When Datnoids are comfortable with their surroundings the bars are pronounced and bold. When they are stressed the color is dark and no bars show.

The one pictured below is when it's stable.. obviously when it's stressed the bars are not seen.

Am I over thinking this? ...lol

 

[ryansmith83]

Cichlids are a bit different. Discus will change their color for lots of reasons -- stress, aggression, breeding, dominance, submission, you name it. They flash their colors and bars on and off just like any South American cichlids. My discus rarely show bars because they are in light colored tanks. Turning off their bars and being washed out are two different things.

Here's an example of a happy, healthy blue turquoise discus who has her bars turned off:

And here's an old tank shot of my fish. You can see that the heckel cross and the pure wild heckel (you see his forehead in the back) keep their faint bars. They darken and become more prominent when chasing, fighting, or eating.

Take a look on SimplyDiscus at the gallery and the wild section. You'll see that both wilds and tank-bred fish turn their bars on and off. Similarly, pigeon blood fish can show more pepper or less pepper (or no pepper) depending on surroundings, mood, health, water quality, etc.

 

[R1_Ridah]

Thanks Ryan for the explanation. Still absorbing all this Discus information.

 

[valderi123]

sweet discus

 

[3dees]

your right about the stress bars. my fish turn thier bars on and off in seconds. they tend to turn dark when feeding. some will show thier bars while others will completely fade all at the same time. peppering is a bit different though. if your fish are peppered they will stay that way unless you change your tank decor. some people don't mind, but others won't buy any pidgeon because of it. I have seen planted tanks with pidgeons with almost no peppering. those tanks have very light or white sand and light blue or pink backgrounds.

 

[MalawiTango]

great looking fish!