# Big Blue earns stripe?



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

My blue Gourami has developed a stripe on his port side....the other side is normal....any thoughts?

















before...


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

If it's not just some sort of colouration effect which I think it is, the only thing that could be would be fungus or perhaps a bacterial infection. If the tank is healthy though, I don't think it is uncommon, especially amongst blue fish to develop dark colour bands.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Hm. Color patterns are controlled to some extent by the nervous system, so it's conceivable that the fish had some damage to the nerve that serves that area of skin. From the photo, it might be near the nerve root at one of the cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae, assuming they have the same naming scheme in fish.

The fish looks pretty healthy otherwise. The original color may or may not return over time, if and as the area is reinervated.

This is mostly but not entirely handwaving. Cichlids, which signal their emotional state by color and pattern changes, are known to show blackened or unresponsive areas after damage to the CNS, so their fellow perciformes, anabantoids, which signal their state in the same way, might well show the same kind of symptoms.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

bae said:


> Hm. Color patterns are controlled to some extent by the nervous system, so it's conceivable that the fish had some damage to the nerve that serves that area of skin. From the photo, it might be near the nerve root at one of the cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae, assuming they have the same naming scheme in fish.
> 
> The fish looks pretty healthy otherwise. The original color may or may not return over time, if and as the area is reinervated.
> 
> This is mostly but not entirely handwaving. Cichlids, which signal their emotional state by color and pattern changes, are known to show blackened or unresponsive areas after damage to the CNS, so their fellow perciformes, anabantoids, which signal their state in the same way, might well show the same kind of symptoms.


That's really interesting.
Is there an article that goes more into depth about this that you could link us to? I've always wondered why this happens sometimes.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

bae said:


> Hm. Color patterns are controlled to some extent by the nervous system, so it's conceivable that the fish had some damage to the nerve that serves that area of skin. From the photo, it might be near the nerve root at one of the cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae, assuming they have the same naming scheme in fish.
> 
> The fish looks pretty healthy otherwise. The original color may or may not return over time, if and as the area is reinervated.
> 
> This is mostly but not entirely handwaving. Cichlids, which signal their emotional state by color and pattern changes, are known to show blackened or unresponsive areas after damage to the CNS, so their fellow perciformes, anabantoids, which signal their state in the same way, might well show the same kind of symptoms.


I can agree with Bae 100% on her thoughts. I have had this happen to a German blue ram that was attack and where he was more or less nudged (no broken scales) he earned a few stripes. kinda like a bruise. And very much like the Gourami.

sorry bae!.

Thanks Riceburner.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

psst....bae is a she....

A couple of my labs get the black face....very very black. Wish one of em would get stuck that way, but all over.


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## tobalman (Mar 31, 2006)

Hi

One of my african hap got a similar look awhile back due to excessive feeding of spirulina Flake, so I stop feed Spirulina Flake and changed to New Life Spectrum cichlid forumlar and after the next 3 months you can see the different.

Before










3 months after


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

interesting....I just started to up the ratio of spirulina flake in that tank.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

tobalman said:


> Hi
> 
> One of my african hap got a similar look awhile back due to excessive feeding of spirulina Flake, so I stop feed Spirulina Flake and changed to New Life Spectrum cichlid forumlar and after the next 3 months you can see the different.
> 
> ...


That's a stunning fish


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Riceburner said:


> psst....bae is a she....
> 
> A couple of my labs get the black face....very very black. Wish one of em would get stuck that way, but all over.


Black labs would be cool  I have dream aquarium for my screen saver and you can make labs of any colour for your tank in it and I made black ones . Oh.. and some neon green ones... for the ..... kids....


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