New Discus

[Iceblue56]

Hey guys i just got some discus from rocky mountain discus, so far they are all doing really well and eating like pigs, i just have a question on a couple of them the rest i can tell what they are, but the ones that i have pictures of i just wanted to make sure they are what i bought them as.

left-golden dragon? right- red malboro or red melon? little bigger than 3 inchs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/iceblue56/100_0054.jpg

Spotted snakeskin? little bigger than 3 inchs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/iceblue56/100_0097.jpg

pigeon blood? he is small only about 2 inchs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/iceblue56/100_0111.jpg

i also got a red turq and a blue diamond

[Iceblue56]

So no one on this whole forum can help me out here or reply?

[victor]

nice fish man
love the lss
good luck with them

[sammigold]

bottom one is a pigeonblood....
I cant help with the top two as I am not an expert on the strains... but I would say the one on right possibly marlborough red....(I really could be very wrong though :oops: )

They are nice fish especially the little snakeskin... Glad they are settling in well... Good Luck

[Iceblue56]

Thanks Guys,
i was wonering about the golden dragon beucase some people call a golden dragon a clean pigeon is that true? thanks.
so is it just called a spotted snake skin or is it a leopored spotted snake skin which is right? and is that what LSS is?
so with good water changes and 3 sm feedings a day(which i heard is a good amount) how fast do discus grow? it is only 6 of them and a catfish in and 80 gallon
filter are magnum 350 penguin 40 and a H.O.T magnum with once weekly water changes( sorry i cant really do more being in college and working that that is what i do on all my tanks)

[sammigold]

LSS is leopard spotted snakeskin abbreviation I think...

Some people here feed their discus 4 or 5 times a day... Just as much as they can eat within a few mins... They will always eat the little piggies!!!

I change the water in my tank once a week and my discus seem happy with that (I dont have a huge bio-load so it works...) I think the more fish you have and the bigger they get the more changes you need to do... also it seems to be beneficial to juveniles to have more frequent water changes to encourage good growth as discus love pristine water conditions. You can only do what you can do... so if once a week works then it works, if you find that your discus arent happy you may need to do more frequent changes....see how you go... Good luck.... HTH

[Merrilyn]

Hi Iceblue, welcome to the forum. Sometimes it takes us a little while to get around to all the posts, so sorry for the delay.

You certainly have a nice bunch of juvenile fish there. Feeding three times a day will be fine, so long as you watch and make sure everyone is getting their fair share. I like to feed my juveniles a lot, and vacuum up the excess after. That way I know everyone has had a chance to eat, even the shy ones. Growing fish need more food than do adult fish, so they seem to eat a lot for their size.

It would be better if you could do more water changes, but I understand that sometimes this is not possible. Just do what you can, and keep testing for a rise in Ammonia. If you have any reading at all, then it's time for a water change, and quickly!

Your fish certainly seem to be named correctly. You have a spotted snakeskin, but not a leopard spotted snakeskin. LSSS have spots all over the body, usually with a light background. Your fish is a snakeskin (it has 14 bars showing) with some red spotting. Very pretty little fish.

That could well be a golden dragon. It is so hard to tell at the juvenile stage. A lot of discus don't get their full colour till maturity. A clean pigeon simply means that it has no visible black peppering on the nose or body. The original pigeon blood discus all had peppering on the face and body to a more or lesser degree. From these fish came all our beautiful colours, so the pigeon blood is a very important fish in the discus world.

Breeders are now trying to breed out the heavy peppering on a lot of the strains, to give you what is called a clean fish. The golden dragon is one of those strains where a lot of work has been done to breed out the peppering.

You have some very nice fish there. Keep the pictures coming.