Discus with bars and solid colors..

[cityguy]

Some Discus has vertical bars overlaid with varying amount of pattern or striations, and the bars grow fade or dark at times, while other are plain and solid coloured with no bars on them.. which ones are what type and which ones of these 2 types are the better ones ? :roll:

[Hollowman]

City,

You will find that most fish carry what most people call 'Stress Bars.' Some fish show them permenantly, some have had them bred out, some come and go with mood, and some bars have developed into what we call 'peppering' when we talk about PB based fish.

Calling them 'Stress Bars' can be mis-leading though, and I would rather we call them 'mood bars' They can come and go as the mood of the fish changes, ie: when feeding, when pairing or fighting or when feeling a little under the weather.
In PB based fish the bars are not evident, but can be represented by the peppering we see in some fish. Mostly, breeders try to avoid this trait, as most people prefer 'clean' looking fish. When a pair forms, most people try to avoid crossing a PB based fish with a 'blue/red' fish, as the PB gene is dominant and the majority of the fry produced with be PB, but heavily peppered.
As Andrew wrote the other day about changing of colour, you can reduce the 'peppering' or a PB fish by introducing it to a very light coloured enviroment. I have recently moved one of my PB's to a white painted tank. In just a few weeks, it has lost 99% of its pepper (not that it had much anyway) but even the very dark tail has now changed completely to a light colour.
Wild fish tend to retain their vertical bars, as they form part of the camoflage needed to survive in the Amazon.

hth

Hollowman :wink: