Decisions: A 20 year old male with dark stool Department of Emergency Medicine Saint John There are no 50 shades of melena, only one color: Black; and it's a color that smells bad. Otherwise it's not melena or it's derivatives (melenic, melanotic, melenatonic ) Great thread w a Stool Colors and What They Can Tell You Your stool color can carry important clues about digestion, diet, or even disease. Most shades are harmless, but some changes signal the need for The Quantity of Blood Required to Produce a Tarry Stool. How much? Melena, characterized by black tarry stools, can occur with as little as 50 cc of blood in the stomach. How Differences between Melena and Hematochezia YouTube