Back in June 2008 I noticed a little GBA in my tank who had a spot:

The spot grew larger & reached her eye. Then I didn't really change. Until now :-?

I took this on the 2nd of feb 2010:

(I now notice that its not the solid brown that it used to be & the edges aren't so sharp)

And then last night:

I had a look at her other side, just incase I'd got the wrong side. & since I saw the spot she's been the only GBA/BN in her tank so its not just another GBA

Anyone else had this happen??

Wonder if it was like a deep seated blood blister that has broken up and is finally dispersing and disappearing.

I'd heard that it could be a sign of BN heritage, I hadn't even thought about any medical problem

nah. its the pigment. the amount of melanin being produced is exactly the same, so in a small fish it appears to be a small dot that is dark. as the fish ages and grows larger the amount of melanin produced is the same and as the cells push further apart to make room for more cells - it appears as the dot has faded.

what it is in reality is hundreds of thousands of cells in a group that contain the pigment.

But even a month ago the spot was dark - I just don't have any photos from that time. The fish hasn't grown in a while & now the spot is changing

Just found this pic I took beggining of last Nov:

& she hasn't changed size since that pic was taken to now

don't worry firefish.

It is quite normal for the "spot" to fade on the GBA.

Technically speaking I have read many discussions about L144 (GBA) and most are along the lines of there perhaps only ever been one specimen actually caught, and the GBA that are in the trade today are in fact a gold cultivated form of the BN.

But that discussion aside (because I can't find the reference to the discussions) about 0.5 - 1% of GBA have a brown / black dot somewhere on them.

They all tend to fade as the fish grows older, and some fade quite quickly. If you breed from that one then there is the same 0.5-1% chance that the offspring will have a dot.

I have one that has 1/2 of its face as a black dot. Well it did have. Now it looks like it is wearing half of spidermans mask. Quite cool.

You may also find that the gold fades too.

Cheers

Geoff

I'm not worried, just wanted to know if it was normal

Quite pleased if it actually goes away fully 8)