Plz Identify my discus

[zar]

Hi all,

A few people have sort of given me different potential names of the discus i own, in shops they're often sold as assorted discus and i understand that they are probably mixed between different varieties.
1. the blue discus one the pictures below, how do i know if it's a cobalt blue, blue diamond or another blue strain? What is it?

2. The brown one on the pictures, has reddish fins, with a bit of blue in it, and a few red spots on its belly...it'say its a red spotted snakeskin ?? thats my wild guess, does anyone know what this one could be?

3. The orange one,(my favourite) what could it be?The ones in the middle i bought as red turqs, and again, not sure about the spotted one on the right, someone told me it's a leopard..i thought its probably some sort of snakeskin...
anyway, if you can identify any of them i'd be grateful to know what they are or could be.

thanks
zar

[Merrilyn]

A snakeskin is defined by the number of stress bars it shows, i.e. 14 or more bars. Standard discus exhibit 9 bars, so I think we can safely say that your fish are not snakeskins.

The blue one, I believe is a blue diamond, because of the lack of stress bars on the body. It's a bit difficult to tell from photographs, but if the fish never shows any stress bars, then it's definately a blue diamond. If in fact it does show stress bars at times, then you can call it a cobalt.

The brown one is a bit of a mystery. My best guess is that it's a cross between a brown and a red spotted green. It's still a very young fish, and the colours could well develop into something else, but at the moment, that's what it appears to be.

The red coloured one in the first pic is a pigeon blood. With that pattern, it could be called a pearl pigeon. That red colour will intensify as it grows.

The other two are just nice little turquoise with slightly different patterns on the body. The one with spots could possibly pass for a chequerboard, but either way, those three are all very nicely shaped fish and should grow into lovely adults.

You've made some good choices there :P

[zar]

thanks Marrilyn

Yeah, the blue one never shows any stress bars so it's a blue diamond. :)
At least i've got some sort of idea what they are now..The brown one is not looking too flash, but i got him with the blue one for a really good price and both weren't in great condition but are looking much better now..
the orange one and the checkerboard were recommended/given to me by someone who's experienced with discus, and they were considered pretty good stock from singapore.
this probably brings another question:
How is good stock classified? Sometimes in shops, they sell "Class A" discus, how can you really tell whats class A and whats not?

thanks
zar

[Merrilyn]

How is good stock classified? Sometimes in shops, they sell "Class A" discus, how can you really tell whats class A and whats not?


Class A or A Grade is really only someone's opinion of a fish.

We rarely get to see true A Grade show quality stock in Australia, because the market won't stand it. Not many people are prepared to pay thousands of dollars for a show quality fish. There may be only one or two top quality show fish in a huge spawn, so those fish are very valuable. They are either kept by the breeder himself, as future breeding stock, or they are sold to Japan and USA where buyers are willing to pay huge prices.

What we get here in Australia may well be siblings to the show stock, but the breeder didn't class them as 'exceptional'.

Fish shows are not terribly popular here in Australia, unlike say, dog shows or horse shows, so what we want to look for is a good healthy fish, with a nice body shape, clear eye, bright and alert with his fins up and a nicely marked pattern on the body.

By refusing to buy poor quality fish, with deformed fins, football shaped bodies, and chipped eyes, we will force the asian breeders to send us better quality stock.

Have a look at your own fish. In the first picture, you can see that all have a nice small eye in comparison to the body size, all are showing a round body shape and holding their fins erect, which indicates a healthy and alert individual. The pattern over the body is even and pleasing to the eye, and the colours are bright.

In contrast to that, look at the other two pictures. First thing that I notice is the size of the eye. It's much larger in relation to the body size, indicating that the fish have had a set back in growth, either due to feeding problems or lack of water quality or perhaps a disease. The body shape is more oval, rather than round, and the fins are closed, once again, signs of a health problem.

On the brown fish, the body colour is not even and bright, and on the blue diamond, he has a stress bar at the base of the tail fin and a hint of a stress bar going through the eye, which is not desirable in a blue diamond, they should show absolutely no dark bars at all.

Having said that, genetics being what it is, the most perfect parent fish will not always have perfect offspring. Maybe one or two out of their spawn of three hundred fry will be classed as 'perfect'.

By the same token, two of the ugliest parent fish can have one or two exceptional fry in their spawn. That's what makes fish breeding so very interesting. There is never a "sure thing".

I guess the moral of the story is always select the best looking fish that you can find in the fish shop. Reject the deformed ones, and the ones that sulk in a corner. Stay away from the ones with muddy colours and ill defined markings, they are bound to be crosses and if you breed from them, there's no telling what colour fry you'll get.

If we do breed our fish, then we should choose the parents carefully, the idea being to improve the breed, not just produce masses of multi coloured fry. Cull any deformed , badly marked or poorly shaped fry. You're not doing them a favour by keeping them alive. Keep only the best from your spawns, whether that be 10, 20 or 50, and give them the best quality food and water that you can manage. That way we'll see an improvement in the quality of fish in Australia.

[zar]

With the blue and brown one, it was probably both, the water and the food that was bad. I've only had them for 2 weeks now, they look much healthier than they were when i got them..They're appetite is good, i can't see any hexamite or gill fluke signs so i'm hoping there's no deseases...
If they had a setback in growth, is it likely that they'll get a growth spurt or sort of catch up with growth if they're kept in good conditions and fed good food?

[Merrilyn]

If they're well fed, and the water is kept in top condition, with water changes at least three times a week, they will certainly have a growth spurt.

Hard to say if they'll ever catch up to the others, but so long as their appetite is healthy, and they're not showing any sign of disease, you're giving them the best possible chance of growing into lovely adults.

[zar]

Thanks Marrilyn

They look healthy to me at the moment, the fins are erect, they don't hide around in the tank, they eat well. There's no signs of hexamite, and the gills seem to be synchronous which tells me that there is no gill fluke infection or at least no major one.
I think i might get some aqua master prazi tablets anyway to treat the whole tank. Apart from the obvious fungal infections,fin rot,worms and the ones above is there any other behaviour or signs that would indicate that they have a desease. I've sort of read through most of the recent forum posts here and know basic signs but i'm not sure if i'm missing any of the obvious ones...

zar