Discus Color Question

[sanspants]

Im sure you all have touched this subject often, but I couldnt find it anywhere.

Anyway... I am new to the group, I am the proud new parent of 6 new discus and 12 Golden Veiltail Angels. (Dont worry it is a 125 gallon tank :D They are all the same size and getting along quite nicely.

I am trying to distinguish what type of discus they are... (I would send pictures, but my digital camera is older than dirt)

2 are all orange with blackish tips on their fins.
1 is a 1/2 orange and 1/2 blue spotted where it looks like it has giant veins of orange running through the body. (Is this typically pigeon blood??)
3 are blue, they have browner centers with their outer edges being blue. (The parents were very vibrant blue all over however)

Anyway all of them are about 3.5 inches big.. Do colors change often?

Colors don't change really, it's more of being lighter and darker. This does cause the colors to appear differently, however, so its pretty cool. You really only wanna see them light though...lol The all orange fish, i'd guess either a pigeon blood or a marlboro red with lots of peppering, as sometime the MRs appear orange. The all blue fish you spoke of were probably blue diamonds or blue cobalts. However, if the fish you have are their offspring, they should be all blue as well....no brown. Maybe i'm not much of a help on that one. The fish that is orange/blue is probably a red turquoise??? It probably hasn't filled out all the way yet. Hope that helps.

[sanspants]

Thanks for the info!
They said the blues were cobalt's but they do have more brown in them than I would have thought.

-No biggie, they are still so cool! I just love them.

So the actual color of them comes out pretty early then? Around the time when the fry actually start to look like discus?

[Ryan Smith]

Color depends heavily on the strain of fish you have. Some fish color up very early, others take months and months (like the spotted varieties).

Some fry start out brown in color, and then develop striation over the brown as time goes on. This could be what you're seeing in your cobalts.

I would guess that you also have one or two pigeon blood based fish, whether it's 'marlboro reds' or 'tangerines' or 'pandas'. There's not much in a name with discus. It's not as cut and dry as with angels. What one breeder calls a marlboro red, another breeder may call a red dragon (or some other fictitious, made-up name to raise the price). So for the sake of arguing, I think you have some blue fish, and possibly some pigeon-based orange fish :)

Watch out for those angels. It's a large tank, yes, but when it comes to feeding, they will outcompete discus everytime. The only thing working to your advantage is that they are veils, and are a little slower than your discus.

Ryan

[sanspants]

Thanks for the good advice.

I have a cattle-prod ready for the angels if the get too greedy.

Im trying to implement a number-based system for rationing food, but the fish dont seem to be cooperating too well. ::)

Thanks again, and keep up the great board!

[DarkDiscus]

sanspants,

Welcome to the board.

If I may ask, where did you get the discus and what were the folks who were selling them calling them? As Ryan said, the name's not important, rather whether the fish are healthy, growing and that you like them!

Good luck with the discus!

John