Anybody keep Discus fish?

organ

I'm too lazy to join a discus forum so I decided to post here hoping somebody have an answer.

Last week I decided to buy the super high maintanance discus fish. I got 3 baby ones about the size of a dime. These ones were labeled as "Red Turquoise Discus". Their colors are just starting to come in, and they look more like "Red Marlboro" instead of red turquoise.

Anybody know how to tell them apart when young?

They're in great shape right now. They're eating a lot, getting 50% water change daily with no amonia, nitrite or nitrate. PH is around 7.0.

Maurice

tntvt

Good Luck! I found my reef aquarium to be less expensive! They are one of the most beautiful fish you can keep. As far as telling them apart I couldn't tell you.

BlueMDPicker

Sexing Discus

Mike682

Maurice

I used to breed discus. I had a local aquarium that bought my baby discus for $15 each. It was a great hobby that was ruined by my younger brother's friend throwing some crap in my tank when I wasn't home....came home from work and one was dead, the other was on its way out. Man I was pissed :mad: .

Anyway, it is practically impossible to tell what sex they are. The only time you can really tell sex is when they are breeding. I bought three discus to start my collection and I was very lucky to have a mating pair that was fertile. What I can tell you is that they do exhibit some behaviors that indicate they are a pair: 1) they will swim toward each other and as they approach, they tilt their heads up and as they pass, they tilt their heads back down. It is very cool to watch. 2) The female will pick (with her mouth) a spot and keep picking (like she is eating). 3) they start staying very close to each other as the male waits for her to lay eggs.

Now the fun part: after the female feels the spot is clean she proceeds to lay her eggs on it. She will tilt her head toward the top of the tank so her belly is side is facing the spot. She then swims right up to the spot and, from the bottom, lays her eggs as she swims upward. The male follows right behind her laying his sperm on the eggs. They do this routine for awhile.

After that the female fans the eggs with her fins. She will do this until they hatch.

After they hatch, the babies will actually feed off the mothers slimy coat. It's wierd to see twenty or thirty little specs feeding off the mother's skin.

Also, sometimes they will eat the eggs after they lay them. This happened once to me. I don't remember why, but they will sometimes eat them. It could be that because the water temp, if too high will cause the eggs to grow fungus and die. I used to keep my tank at 82-85, and then lower it to 80 or so when they laid eggs. This would help minimize (not prevent)the occurence of fungus growing on the eggs. Also the amount of fanning the female does helps minimize fungus too.

It's a great hobby and now that I have more free time, I am thinking about picking up another pair of discus.

organ wrote:

I'm too lazy to join a discus forum so I decided to post here hoping somebody have an answer.

Last week I decided to buy the super high maintanance discus fish. I got 3 baby ones about the size of a dime. These ones were labeled as "Red Turquoise Discus". Their colors are just starting to come in, and they look more like "Red Marlboro" instead of red turquoise.

Anybody know how to tell them apart when young?

They're in great shape right now. They're eating a lot, getting 50% water change daily with no amonia, nitrite or nitrate. PH is around 7.0.

Maurice

organ

TNT,
Awesome. Marine tanks is too much work for me. They're beautiful though. Got any pics?

Mike,
Thanks for the link. That's gonna come in handy when it's time to send two of them for their honeymoon.

Mike682,
Thanks for the very informative post. If I end up with a breeding pair, I'll be selling the babies to pet shops for some extra cash.

I have an adult male angelfish right now. I used to have a breeding pair but the female died. I still don't know what killed her. She was always laying eggs. One day, she was pregnant and just died.

What kind of discus did you own? I guess my original post wasn't clear. I wanted to know if anybody knows how to tell apart red turquoise and red marlboro discus when they're still young. I'm very excited and can't wait until they're older to find out which bloodline they are.

I saw some pics of some royal blues and they're spectacular.

Since you're planning to get back into them, you should check out the new strains available now. The snake skins are very nice and seems to be the most popular at the moment.

Maurice

BlueMDPicker

organ wrote:

I guess my original post wasn't clear. I wanted to know if anybody knows how to tell apart red turquoise and red marlboro discus when they're still young. I'm very excited and can't wait until they're older to find out which bloodline they are.

The Marlboro Red ones will be wheezing and coughing a lot.

Sounds like a fun hobby, enjoy!

tommydisco

well look this , the red one are malboro or red melon and the are 2
Turquoise Discus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGj-O6QvspA

vlam

Welcome to your new expensive hobby

You should definitely join a discus forum even just to get info. SimplyDiscus is one of the best out there.

Now to your question. Breeders call strains of discus to whatever they like. Some even make up new names. At dime size, it will be impossible to tell what they will look like when they become adult. Coloration doesn't really start until about 2.5" and up.

Sounds like you are starting out right with the WC. Keeping discus isn't hard, just a commitment and the key is keeping everything simple. I have 8 tanks of discus and if you keep it simple. Just feeding a variety of diet and water change.

Here is one of my tank. Feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions if you decide not to join a forum.

vlam

As far as sexing them?

There are signs but not always a guarantee.

Here is one of my pair. The White/Silver one is the female. Notice that the dorsal fin (top) is more rounded in the back compared to the red discus? Some male will even have strainer at the end.

The only really way to know that it's a female is if you watch it lay eggs as you see in the 2nd pic.

vlam

What kind of discus did you own? I guess my original post wasn't clear. I wanted to know if anybody knows how to tell apart red turquoise and red marlboro discus when they're still young. I'm very excited and can't wait until they're older to find out which bloodline they are.

Maurice,

One of the sign of turquoise discus is that they are have vertical stress bar (black) when they are stressed.

A red Marlboro is in a pigeon blood class. They will have black spot (pepper) on their face body. Is is especially true when you have dark substrates or decorations in your tank. They have no vertical bar.

vc69

vlam,

Beautiful fish. I love em.

I have an African cichlid that is my buddy. Fish have amazing personalities.

Carry on!

Pycroft

I also had a nice tank for a few years, had to sell it when I moved, and just got a new tank, but nothing setup yet. Vc69- I had a 55gallon tank with African Cichlids - all Mbuna. What a great hobby, and those Africans have a huge personality. I LOVED them all until there was one mouth breeding, and the other fish killed her. Little buggers :0

Enjoy the discus. My next tank, I'm going for more of a community fish