altispinosa

[fishgeek]

anyone seen a ram with vitiligo?
this one is about 2 yrs in my tanks and has been slowly losing colour over the last year

[Noddy65]

Wow...interstingly Andrew my wife had a Betta that showed loss of pigmentation on about 1/3 of its body (ie it went white). After a few months the colour just came back.
We never worked out why it went and why it came back (the colour that is).

Mike

[Dangerous Dave]

I have never seen it, but I heard that cancer in fish can make them turn black. Any chance of that?

[Th0mas]

TB can also effect the pigmentation. However that normally effect one side of the fish.

[Merrilyn]

I've heard nerve damage can make areas dark, but I've never seen it like that.

[fishgeek]

dark black cloured area of skin definitely can be nervous

the melanophores(pigment cells of fish) are neurally controlled , hence mood dependant colouring we see
so pressure or irritation to the nerve can mead to the black area, hence the black faced fish after whacking it's head
the black area near an inj site when treating fish
the black operculum with a thyroid goitre etc etc

tb in gold fish has been implicated in loss of pigment

the long duration in this fish makes me less liely to believe tb or cancerous issue's

andrew

[Noddy65]

What about going white Andrew?....and the loss of pigment in the beta appears to have spontanously resolved.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a378/Noddy65/whitefighter1.jpg


Mike

[fishgeek]

not aware that palour is associated with neural control?

is that what you meant mike?