Please help ID my discus thanks!

[pet_aquatics]

Hi all, I'm new to discus fish keeping, had previously and still are keeping other fresh water fishes like arowana and goldfish. I've decided to take the plunge into discus keeping and bought a few from my LFS (I know its seen as an evil in the west if I don't get them from a breeder but I've known the store owner for years and he specializes in discus, goldfish and flowerhorn imports only). The trouble is I cannot seem to identify their strains per say as I got them from a "random fry tank" at around 1.5 inches a month back and they are now 3-4 inches. I was hoping the experts could help me in that. Thanks in advance and happy fishkeeping! ^v^

 

[phreeflow]

Looks like checkerboard, snakeskin, and red melon. Hope the melon colors up more as it grows

 

[pet_aquatics]

Looks like checkerboard, snakeskin, and red melon. Hope the melon colors up more as it grows

Hi thanks for your reply ! Been wondering around forums and discus store sites and I can't help but wonder it could perhaps be a blue Turk(instead of checker), snakeskin and some no strain discus (instead of melon). So is it possible that some discus do not have strains? Should I also be concerned that my snakeskin is showing its pattern at 3 inches ? Since I read that juvenile fish are not suppose to show great pattern/ colours unless they've been treated with hormones. ><

 

[phreeflow]

Hi thanks for your reply ! Been wondering around forums and discus store sites and I can't help but wonder it could perhaps be a blue Turk(instead of checker), snakeskin and some no strain discus (instead of melon). So is it possible that some discus do not have strains? Should I also be concerned that my snakeskin is showing its pattern at 3 inches ? Since I read that juvenile fish are not suppose to show great pattern/ colours unless they've been treated with hormones. ><

They have a million names for the same discus strain. It is definitely a red or blue turquoise strain but any slightly different variation or pattern will get a different name from the sellers. Since it has dots as well as striations, it might be considered a checkerboard even though it’s a variant of a turquoise discus. If it has vertical stripes, it would be called a tiger.

If your snakeskin had mostly blue, it would be called a scorpion. It really doesn’t matter what the breeders or sellers call them

Your red one looks to be some variant of pigeon or Marlboro discus. If it’s face was white or yellow, it would be a melon or some other fancy name.

As for color, it’s likely that your blue discus were treated with testosterone to make them show blue patterns early. I’d be most interested in seeing how your “melon” colors up as it grows.

It would be best to buy discus from breeders so you know what you’re getting and their lineage if you’re concerned about quality. Otherwise, you can just enjoy them as pets. Kinda like high end koi or pet store koi

 

[pet_aquatics]

They have a million names for the same discus strain. It is definitely a red or blue turquoise strain but any slightly different variation or pattern will get a different name from the sellers. Since it has dots as well as striations, it might be considered a checkerboard even though it’s a variant of a turquoise discus. If it has vertical stripes, it would be called a tiger.

If your snakeskin had mostly blue, it would be called a scorpion. It really doesn’t matter what the breeders or sellers call them

Your red one looks to be some variant of pigeon or Marlboro discus. If it’s face was white or yellow, it would be a melon or some other fancy name.

As for color, it’s likely that your blue discus were treated with testosterone to make them show blue patterns early. I’d be most interested in seeing how your “melon” colors up as it grows.

It would be best to buy discus from breeders so you know what you’re getting and their lineage if you’re concerned about quality. Otherwise, you can just enjoy them as pets. Kinda like high end koi or pet store koi

Ah I suppose discus "strains" are just fancy descriptions?
Does this mean I should avoid 2-3 inch blue diamond/cobalt fry since they seem rather blue to begin with?

The LFS I got them from just sorted the tanks by colours such as red, blue, yellow, white ( photos attached ) even though there were snakeskins, eruptions, leopards, turks, melons, solid colours all housed together in the same tank as long as they were sort of the same colour.

The fry tank I bought my trio from was labelled "random" xD.