Spotted discus varieties, whats the deal?

[mtchye]

Hi guys,

Wondering if someone can give me the run down on all the different spotted discus varieties. These will probably be our next purchase once we gain a little more experience.

I know there are the leapords and the leapord snake skins. I take it the LSS are just leapords with snakeskin trait, giving the spots a snakeskin pattern? I've read that LSS throw very few LSS fry, do plain ol leapords tend to breed true?

Then there are the eruptions and fireworks types - to my eye they look similar, just varieties of fish with smaller spots than leapords? Would these also have snakeskin in them and not breed true?

Finally... the golden LSS... just to complicate things further lol...

I would just like to pick something that throws a reasonable amount of the same type of fry lol.. its all so confusing :)

TIA for any explanations forthcoming!

Vincent

[sunshinediscus]

Hi Vincent,

Unfortunetly the spotted varieties as a rule don't breed very true and also take a long time to show the true potential of each individual. They are definately not a strain for the average hobbiest if you are after a type that reproduces close to type.

My understanding of the various varieties are:

red diamond- red turk x rsg
leopard Mark Tan- red diamond x red turquoise. (that is the origin but many types have rsg added again to the breeding lines which then requires several generations of inbreeding and backcrossing to again achieve the true leopard look)
leopard Sunny Lo- rsg heavily inbred.
golden leopard- pure golden x leopard
white leopard- snow white x leopard
leopard snakeskin- snakeskin x leopard
ruby leopard snakeskin- selected individuals from leopard snakeskin
eruption- selected individuals from leopard snakeskin ( the highest grade from penang)
Singapore fireworks- rsg x snakeskin

HTH

Rod

[flukes]

Its all spots just different colors and variety of spotting.

Eruptions should be spotted every where.

Golden Leopards are an old strain that has pigeon blood in it somewhere.

Golden leopard snakeskin is the latest which has no pigeon in it. Well it shouldnt have..

Eruptions and GLSS will cost the most, then fireworks and oriental dreams about the same and then your normal leopards.

[kevkoi]

Golden leopards do not have pigeon in them. They come from the Golden line which was created from Browns. Do not speckle or dust up. The cheaper alternative is the Pigeon leopards, which may show up the dusting/speckling.

[kevkoi]

To complicate matters, it is hard to tell just based on a picture. U have to see the fish up close and personal....

[kevkoi]

This is an eruption.... the dots are very fine and dense. Eruptions are selected grade LSS

[kevkoi]

These are Leopard spotted sankeskin "A" grade Spotting is still very good, but notice the spotting is bigger at the base of the fin? Spotting is less developped and not so dense.

[kevkoi]

Then, let us not forget the RING leopards.... :lol:
..... This is a borrowed picture.

SLS has a pair of them which I have yet to take pictures of.

kev

[Proteus]

let me see what I can fix regarding the limit

[mtchye]

Thanks guys, very informative, and Kev your pics really cleared things up for me. I still like spotted fish and if anything they will provide a good display fish and perhaps a variety of different fry.. Just have to save up some more and not look at any SLS posts in the meantime :p

[weird]

I agree with ya mtchye, I love spotted discus, definitely my next purchase.