A question of taste?

[mikeychdiscus]

At the expense of sounding really silly, i thought I would ask anyway. I read a lot of comments from discus keepers who say " i hate pigeon bloods". whats up with that? I totaly understand that its probably a matter of taste but the comments seem a bit vitriolic. I mean i havent come across people saying "Red turks are awfull" or " i would never consider a penang eruption in my tank". Am I just being a bit precious because my first choice as a new discus keeper was the PB strain? I think they look absolutely gorgeous. :)

Your thoughts?

[mikeychdiscus]

some shameless pics of my brood :)

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad353/Michael_Chanter/P1000799.jpg

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad353/Michael_Chanter/P1000798.jpg

[Merrilyn]

I think people don't like pigeon blood strains because of the possibility of black spotting (peppering).

It doesn't really bother me very much but most prefer their fish "clean". That's why the asian breeders work hard to line breed the black spotting out.

A lot of people don't realize that without the early pigeon bloods, we wouldn't have the array of colours that we do today. They certainly have a place in the tank, but you're right, it's just a matter of taste.

[Ghoti]

Well I'm only new to the discus world, but they look awesome to me! I'd certainly be proud of them.

Perhaps those that "hate pidgeon bloods" are merely jealous :lol:

Cheers,
Scott

[BigDaddyAdo]

I don't like PBs because of peppering. I think it looks horrible. For the record i'm not jealous. ;)

[lpiasente]

My choice of discus is always a pb I LOVE 'em but a good clean one. I don't like the peppering at all. But every other strain comes a very very close 2nd

[goodoo]

I dont mind a little bit of peppering not to much . Cant stop nature. nature fighting back. I think wilds look amazing and the best but I also have a malborough and an erruption and a leopard my pb wood get hammered in the wild stands out like dogs b**** at night.

[ILLUSN]

I Dont like PB's because i find it too hard to get quality offspring from any pair, generally I'm of the belief that if it isn't an A grade its not worth having, I also have a MASSIVE problem the made up naming of strains which essentially are just pigions (FOTU, Rafflesia, fake RGD's, yellow melons, red melons, Marlbro's sunsets, butterflys etc etc) as none of them breed 100% true.

[mikeychdiscus]

Cheers illusion. Thats the first fair criticism ive read.

[boxters]

to an extent i agree with some of the above comments. pigeon bloods can look pretty ugly if they have peperring on their heads, and if they are b or c grade. The pb's i import are all AA grade little to know pepering great body shape and the males all have streemers on their dorsal fins. They are stunning fish. Ill try post a pic

[ILLUSN]

I'm not saying all PB's are B grade or worse, just that no A grade x A grade gives even 50% A grade fry. As said above they never breed true, even corssing 2 FOTU gives, FOTU, Melons, marlbro and all kinds of terrible dark fry.

[lpiasente]

I saw a tank full of red melons the other day only a month or so old and they were sooo badly peppered I felt bad for them as I thought they must have been stressed and they looked well ugly :( . Now I know the real reason why on and they were $49 each. :shock:

[mikeychdiscus]

Thats a really interesting perspective Illusion. And something i have not come accross in my readingon breeding of discs, and certainly not even somethign that i would have considered. It was my impression that crossing a PB with a blue based Disc was a big NO NO. but i assumed (you know what they say about assumptions) that breeding PB with PB would not result in disastorus peppering. I may have to reconsider my plans to breed these guys i got and place them in my display tank instead.


Amazing what you find out when you ask. :)

[goodoo]

my girlfriend likes a bit of pepper on her fish

[mikeychdiscus]

hahahahaha. Touche

[JimmyTheFish]

Not being a discus keeper myself, my comments maybe a little off, but I do appreciate the beauty of discus nonetheless. However, given the choice I would go for wild types over any of the line bred or mutations available, although many of the latter are nice. I just prefer wild types, most likely due to their subtlety.

[Mickey C]

I guess I'm the only non-racist here, I like most discus on their merits, not by their strain or breed :P That is, I have seen a pigeon blood that was mostly yellow, had a fair degree of peppering but had a really nice dorsal fin. I also like some of the orange and blue high-fin strains. I think the wilds are in a league of their own though.

Nice to read everyone's opinions though, especially regarding breeding (and the results thereof!)