Discus Prices?

[AdelaideAnt]

i work in a Aquarium store so im aware of the general prices of juvenile discus but what i want to know is the price of say an adult male/female pair. For instace how much would a red turk pair be? Brilliant turk? Cobalt? Blue Diamond?

Anthony 8)

PS: what i most likely will do is buy several juveniles and grow them up but this was a question brought out by curiosity :)

[Proteus]

I think growing them yourself is half the fun and challenge...

I have seen proven breeding pairs, full size, sell for AU$450+

considering for a good adult on its own, you could be looking at AU$250+ea it makes juveniles all the more attractive...

depends what you want though I guess...

[flukes]

Thats a hard question because "pair" prices are totally up to the seller, so are selling discus indivdually but if ones sells his blue diamond at $50 and the guy down the road sells it for $35 he has to lower his price. But with pairs there is no direct competition, someone might have another pair but it might not be the same strainsize etc.
We have a LFS discus importer in melbourne and once i saw him with a pair of spotted eruption for $550. Then ive also seen a pair of blue turq's for $200.
Its always the way when looking for a pair, you find one buy it and then a week later you see another pair for half the price.
The best chance is to try to find a hobby breeder that is moving, finished with the hobby etc. I once saw in the trading post a pair of blue diamonds for $130.
Then again you dont know if it was a proven pair could have been 2 females. :wink:

Cheers
Scott

[kevkoi]

Selling discus is not like selling Neon tetras for instance. It's not about what the other guy down the street is doing and u have to match that price..

A 'blue diamond' is not a blue diamond.... if you get my drift. There are grades for the same fish and even within the best grade fish, there are differences.

If it was all about the price (which sadly to many LFS discus sellers it is.), then we would buy the nasty grade "B" fish and make a fortune selling them off at $20 each!! There is a substantial jump in price between good grade fish and lesser grade fish..... but sadly I find that there is not enough recognition of quality among hobbyist.

Well, when we buy fish from overseas breeders, we are more than happy to pay the premium for top quality fish. We don't just pay for "A" grade fish and let the breeder decide what is 'A grade. We have someone in Penang (my self or my uncle who's also a serious Discus fanatic) to go and pick thru the 'A' grade fish for the best of the best! If it ain't good enough, we ain't buying!

At the end of the day, price is relative to everthing.

Someone mentioned a pair of spotted eruption for $550. I find it hard to believe it is of the quality I would want. I could not buy a single show grade 4inch spotted eruption for that price!.... let alone a breeding pair.

There is no standard fix price of these fish... Quality counts for a lot. It's willing buyer, willing seller.

kev

[flukes]

Kev,
Can you/have you got any of those spotted eruptions?? they must be one of my fav discus. What would a juiv 6-7cm go for?? i guessing around $150? Another discus i wouldnt mind getting a hold of is what jack wattley refers to as a red panda, i ll post a pic, I asked about this strain at my melbourne discus importer and he told me its just a varient of a pigeon blood, any idea if you can get them through you connections??

http://members.optusnet.com.au/flukes/red%20panda.jpg

hopethat worked, thats the red panda as refered to on jack wattley's site.

cheers
Scott

[Proteus]

Scott, Love the specimins in the pic...

a fishes vlaue is almost impossible to grade unless seeing it first hand... it may have a "Show" side, but the other side may look like a dogs breakfast... (some may find that atrractive)

also shape, size, eyes, the way they hold themselves... i have seen Discus before that spend 24/7 facing the bottom of the tank... not good at all...

again, supply and demand is a powerful tool, and if you have the goodies, the market will dictate its value...

make sense... UG!!!

:wink:

[kevkoi]

I'd be inclined to say your dealer in melb is right.

Call it by any name you like.... there are all but a few variations on a theme.

That fish in the picture is also commonly known as the 'Pearl pigeon'. Do a search on Google and u will see what I mean. ;)

We DO have the Pearl pigeons in stock atm a6 6-7cm.

As for "Spotted eruptions", it's just a variation on the theme of leopard spotted snakeskins. Ideally, the spotted eruptions are meant to have extremely small spots on the body, extending all the way into the fins without them going into striations. A fish like that was originally called the 'spotted eruption' by Wayne Discus farm, Hong Kong. It was just some very good spotted snakeskins.

These days, everyone and anyone that has got some leopard spotted snakeskins seems to want to rename them "Spotted Eruption". Sigh... even though many or most are not fully 'spotted'.

I will take the liberty of bringing in some REAL 4inch Spotted Eruption on my next shipment to prove the point. They will not be cheap...

6-7cm "Spotted eruptions" IMHO are a waste of money. At 6-7cm, the patterning on the body have not fully developed. They look not much different from any snakeskin... so, u really don't know what you are buying! Then the next catch is that any breeder looking to sell their "spotted eruptions" at that size probably don't have very good fish in the first place (No faith!). Think logically, IF the breeding stock was good, they could spend another 2-3months growing a 6-7cm fish to 10cm, it would be fully well spotted and and the price of the fish at 10cm would be UD$250-US$400 each (as compared to US$40-$50 at 6cm). As a full time Discus breeder, the only reason I would want to sell the 6-7cm fish would be that at 10cm, they WON'T show their spots and would be pretty much be worthless by then. FLOG them out cheap and get them out quick by calling them "Spotted Eruption"... get my drift? How many times have u heard of someone in Australia buying 6cm "Spotted eruptions" say that their fish have ended up looking like pictures on the net or in the books?

The only "spotted eruptions" I would buy are fish above 10cm, nice round dinner plate bodies, FULLY fine SPOTTED right to the end of the fins (No striations on the fin but SPOTS), BLOOD RED eyes, and clear coloured tail and pectoral fins ('cos if they have been hormone fed for red eyes and colour, the tail and pectorals tend to show up reddish as well!), very small eyes (showing that it is a young fish and not stunted) and very responsive fish.

kev

[flukes]

Thanks for clearing that up about the spotted eruptions, i know of man people in australia wide looking for these fish.
Kev you couldn't do me a big favour and post a pic of the pearl pigeon?? do you have many left?? iam dying to get an order from you!!

Cheers
Scott

[flukes]

Kev,
Did a search on the Pearl pigeon, the pics i found didnt look anything like that most pics had a blue tinge to them and didnt even have the same markings, strains can be so confusing. Ah wait EDIT just found one looks very similar just a lighter red, ill post a pic. If you got some of these i want one!! Emailed you about an order...

Pearl Pigeon -
http://members.optusnet.com.au/flukes/Pearl_Pigeon_5.jpg

Cheers
Scott

[kevkoi]

That fish looks like it's been colourfed with lotsa carotene and some 'secret' drugs. :lol:

This is the Pearl pigeon line we have... no colour feeding. This fish is a show fish at 10cm, but from the same parents as our younger 6-7cm fish.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=56

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=55

[flukes]

beautiful!! cant wait they look great.

[Proteus]

Scott, after seeing them in person, only 2 words came to mind...

I WANT... I WANT

(well thats 4, but 2 repeated...)

[flukes]

Dont worry if all goes to plan should have one, along with a scorpion snake skin and a blue diamond on thursday.

Cant wait
Cheers
Scott

[flukes]

Iam putting my trust in kev/george to pick out some top choice discus for me!! They all look good but you want the best of the bunch!!

Hehehehehe

Iam they will be great, its trying to get my mind of them between now and thursday which is the problem.

[flukes]

Kev,
About these color enchacers, ive read up on it and carotene is foud in most discus foods. Is there some way i can get some of this too use in my b/h mix?? Also what other substance's are used to inchance color, other than the populat tetra color bits??

Cheers
Scott

[AdelaideAnt]

How much do you sell those pearl Pigeons for Kev????? I like :)

Anthony 8)

[kevkoi]

For anyone on the Forum, we're doing an extra special on the small discus.... just for you guys! We're taking off $5 from the marked price in the shop. So, if any of you guys walk into the shop, please let someone there know that you've come from the Discus Forum and we will look after you.

The Pearl pigeons at 6-7cm are $55 for forum members. :) There aren't too many of them left... so hurry in and get them b4 they all walk out the door!

kev

[flukes]

Kev,
Just please save one for my order on Tuesday!!! aswell as the other 2 and make sure you pick them out, i want the best quality there is

[kevkoi]

Scott, I've put your fish aside already....
With the Pearl pigeon, I'm going to give you the fish with LEAST amount of speckling. The blue diamond is a very highfin fish (Biggest fish we have in tank atm!) and same with the Snakeskin... very good size, superb highfin and tiny little eye.

kev

[flukes]

Thanks alot mate, i cant wait but dont i want the pearl with the most amount of speckle?? or then i can watch the great transformation but on the other hand what if he doesn't get as much patterns as other fish.
Naa you right in the end its better to get the one with less speckles

Thanks mate
Ill give you a ring tuesday DAY from work (heheh) and then send the cash of tuesday night and thursday i should have some beautiful new fish.

One other thing whats you Ph, i just tested mine and its at 6.0 now the say your better to acclimatise a fish to a higher Ph what do you think??

Cheers
Scott

[kevkoi]

pH on Discus system sits at between 6.5-6.8. We try to keep it as close to neutral as possible as a lot of people just keep their discus in comunity tanks and don't mess much with their pH.

I would suggest doing a 30% water change on your discus tank on Mon/Tues and the pH out of tap should bump your tank pH up to about 6.5-6.8.

kev

[flukes]

Yeah my tap water atm read 7.2 normally my tank is at 6.8, i think its because i just got a heap of diftwood in there. Ill do a water change monday and put in some geo-liquid for discus.


Cheers
Scott

[Proteus]

Also what other substance's are used to inchance color

Good water quality!!!

[flukes]

Actually kev i want a pearl pigeon with the MOST speckles, dont ask me why just makes me a little more sure of what he will be if i can start to see the patterns.

Cheers
Scott

[kevkoi]

Speckles are not patterning.. it's the black spots/dusting that the Pigeon strains are prone to getting.

kev

[flukes]

Ohhh yeah those black dots...ah thats what speckles mean thanks yeah thats what turned me off pigeon bloods in the first place. That would be great if there was one with a few to none that you could send me.

Thanks kev, your a real help
Cheers
scott