one side of Penang Eruptions face turns black

[madaboutfish]

Hi all,

I have just returned from a 2 day holiday and have found that one of my Penang Eruptions has one side of its face turn black. All else seems to be normal. Any ideas on what is happening?

regards

Nick

[Merrilyn]

Got a picture of this Nick? Sounds pretty unusual. A picture will help.

[Dee]

G'day Nick,

A pic would be very helpfull, please post one if you can get one. If you have Andrew Soh's book "Discus - The Naked Truth" check out p.36, it has a pic of a half black discus, Andrew explains it has to do with a sudden temp change. It could be something like that ?

I have also PM'd you a link from another forum that explains similar symptoms. I would of posted it here, but am unsure of the forum policy with doing so :)

HTH

Cheers,

Dee :)

[madaboutfish]

Hi Merrilyn,

Sorry I don't have a camera to take a picture. It looks a little like fishes which are half black due to sudden environmental shock as mentioned on page 36 of Andrew Soh's book. However in this case it seems to be a darkening in the front part stretching vertically from the pelvic fins right up to the beginning of the dorsal fin. The fish looks normal on one side but looks funny on the other. Much like Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde. I have seen on some american website that there were blue diamonds which were half black. My fishes now looks a little like those fishes.

Regards

Nick

[fishgeek]

colour in the skin is neurohormonally controlled by melanophore's

area's of fish that turn dark black and are well delineated are often due to irritation to the nerve that controls melanophore's in that region of the dermis

anything irritating a nerve(local inj of medication/inflammatory disease/growths) can lead to similar signs

if the area has scales standing out like in dropsy then you may have a melanoma developing

is the fish imported?
there are some reports of this occuring more commonly in asia cichlids at present
do you know what the iodine content of your feeding is?

andrew

[Ben]

Could it ammonia related?

[madaboutfish]

Hi to all,

I was pm a link from Dee that some nerve damage may have occurred when the fish got spooked and banged against the glass, thus causing the black face. Now I recall that when I turned on the lights last night they were spooked and did bang the glass so I guess that might be the problem. Looks like this wonderful fish is able to express his unhappiness when it knocks its head. Just have to wait and see if it recovers.

Regards

Nick

[Dee]

Heya Nick,

From what I can gather fish with such an ailment clear up in 2-3 weeks and the black disapears. Keep an eye on the fish to check things don't get any worse, and please post progress as I would be very interested in the out come. Best of luck with the fish mate.

Ben, from what I understand it happens after sudden temp changes, like over 5degress and also can happen from a hard knock on the head ... something along the lines of damaging it's nerve or whatever controls it's colouration. This is all info I have read and I am by no means well versed on the topic :P

Cheers,

Dee :)

[Ben]

Nick,
sounds like this is what happened.

The little guy has a sore head!

keep us posted.

ben

[madaboutfish]

Hi all,

it has been a week and the black face has cleared up. I took some pictures of the fish with the black face using my handphone and will try to post the picture as soon as i know how to do so over the next few days.

Nick

[Merrilyn]

Glad to hear he's recovered Nick.
That's great news.

[madaboutfish]

Hi to all

I am trying to post a picture of my discus with the black face. Hope it works!

Nick

[Lichan]

:shock: holy crap that is black isnt it.. glad its cleared up for you - not a real nice look long term...

[endless]

are you for real!!!!???? :shock: :shock: :shock:

[marg]

Oh my god - never seen anything like it!!

[Northerndiscus]

With interest I read your posts on your Discus going black face on one side? The same thing has happened to my blue Discus, I'm pretty sure it is environmental as I ripped out most of my plants and made a water change. But none of the other discuses were affected? How did your Discus turn out? Thanks!

[kikoman]

woOw.... i haven't see or heard of this before... I hope ur discus is fine...

[fishgeek]

Hi all,

it has been a week and the black face has cleared up. I took some pictures of the fish with the black face using my handphone and will try to post the picture as soon as i know how to do so over the next few days.

Nick

[djceri_g]

Hey, read this thread, it might help. All the best

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13203

[Northerndiscus]

It's been a week and the black face is starting to fade? I'll keep you posted!

[Merrilyn]

It looks frightening and very dramatic when it happens, but as you can see from the experience of others it will eventually fade, and the fish will return to normal.

Many thanks to our friend and vet, fishgeek who first explained this phenonema to us.

[Northerndiscus]

He's back to normal and looking good!