Am I the only one bothered by this. . .

[bluelagoon]

All domestic discus have one thing in common. They're all mutts, so to speak; no matter what we name the strain..The bulldog discus is got to be worst of this example from a deformed cull. Who would want them in their breeding program? and why would they even want to breed such a deformed fish. There's money in odd looking things.

[gators111]

I agree in part that breeders should take care that the hobby is maintained or strengthened by making sure excessive inbreeding is prevented, inasmuch that the overall genetic strength of the domestic strains are able to withstand disease and are healthy. Mollys, platys, and swordtails had this problem in the past (and maybe still do today, not sure). But my gripe is the bazillion names various sellers pull out of their hind-ends. Some org like the ACA, NADA, or whatever needs to sit down and at least set down some of the strains. And just because one stripe or a couple of dots don't express themselves in a couple of offspring, doesn't mean that that fish isn't a red checkerboard instead of a whatever. I think it sows confusion and allows for unscrupulous sellers to take advantage of beginners in the hobby, thereby affecting the growth of the hobby.

[LizStreithorst]

NADA does that in their break up of classes, but NADA doesn't rule the world.

The breeders breed for the mass market. What people want is their bread and butter.

[snxtif]

Soon you'd hear something like "Ninja dragon super rocket tesla pigeon blood"

[14Discus]

Interesting discussion. The neat thing abt this hobby is one can go in any direction he or she pleases......wild or non wild color strain. What dictates direction??.......money, of course. I agree that the naming thing has gone crazy.

There are a few points regarding your original concern. The color breeding has done a few good things to the hobby.
It has sparked interest because of the variety. This is also very true in the koi fish arena. Koi of many years ago were not so varied or available as they are today. They, too, are bred for various color patterns. And yes, they too, have many many color pattern names. My koi pond is full of bred color patterns which I much enjoy. My Discus tanks are full of bred color varieties which I much enjoy.
It has provided color options for fresh water fish with saltwater-like fish colors.
It has produced fish with less restrictive water needs. For example, extensively bred color fish are much more able to be kept in tanks with higher pHs as compared to wilds. Many years ago, people would steer clear
of Discus because the water requirements were so demanding. This is an important improvement imo.

I find the bred color varieties of these fish to be awesome, but surely respect those who choose to go in the purist direction. Some of the bred fish are weird.....not for me, but again, $ $ $.

Pictured are a few color bred fish that blow me away. Wilds are gorgeous too, but because of the variety, my tank fish are an array of color swimming in water that is less restrictive than the days of old. One of my favorites is the (here we go again with the naming thing) Red Eagle.

While I agree abt the naming thing going “off the scale”, I’m darn glad the breeders have created such beautiful strains with higher tolerances of varying pH.

78B34DF1-4BB2-4DAF-9213-493AF19EF9C5.jpg
AAA28C3D-B4C6-4D16-A317-5916144B586B.jpg
414EB404-F98A-465C-8117-96AC6EB253FE.jpg
4D1252CA-38BC-49A7-87EF-C77D68896E91.jpg

[slicksta]

@14D
Thank you for your comments... as I do agree..
Breeding of discus is a good thing and has led to fish that are better adapted to a wider range of aquarium conditions, and for that I am thankful. And as for appearance, I'll always have a Pigeon Blood in my tank. I also think that tank bred helps keep the wild population protected.
My problem is with what I am seeing being offered lately which in my opinion I consider irresponsible inbreeding and other manipulations such as steroids and hormones that are creating unnatural looking fish.
Everything has its limits or can be taken to far. I fear we are headed down the path to creatures like a florescent discus... Think of the poor Parrot fish.

[brewmaster15]

@14D
Thank you for your comments... as I do agree..
Breeding of discus is a good thing and has led to fish that are better adapted to a wider range of aquarium conditions, and for that I am thankful. And as for appearance, I'll always have a Pigeon Blood in my tank. I also think that tank bred helps keep the wild population protected.
My problem is with what I am seeing being offered lately which in my opinion I consider irresponsible inbreeding and other manipulations such as steroids and hormones that are creating unnatural looking fish.
Everything has its limits or can be taken to far. I fear we are headed down the path to creatures like a florescent discus... Think of the poor Parrot fish.

John,
Does that mean I can not put you down for 10 of these...


aIMGP6620.jpg

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ing-a-new-line!

al

[brewmaster15]

I think I am well on my way with this strain John... the shape is phenomenal.

Just snapped a shot of the latest batch of my Unicorn Discus... these things are selling like you would not believe. I cant breed enough to cover demand!
2019-06-04 16.45.52.jpg

Al

[slicksta]

10?!?!
I'll take the entire tank!! ... The parents!! ... And the bottle of hydrochloric acid!!
OK if I call them Golden Double Ruby Princess Unicorn Eruptions?
That particular one I'll call Squiggy

[brewmaster15]

Once you own them John you can call them whatever you want and even resell them. Afterall,its done all the time

Al

[slicksta]

Jack Whatley said... If it's in my tank, it's a Whatley Discus

[brewmaster15]

Well well.. i got me some Brew Discus I guess

[FishFanMan]

That snakeskin that the OP is referring to is one gorgeous discus. Would love to buy it but having hard time handing over $390! That breeder must have spent considerable time and effort to create such a specimen. The name is a mouthful but perhaps it describes the fish accurately? I certainly would not know though. Maybe we should standardize the naming based on displayed traits, something like IUPAC lol! Yes, prices are getting really high but I think this particular guy is show quality.

[Thursty]

This is a very interesting discussion. It does seem to have a few misconceptions cropping up along with what I'd consider misguided opinions.

As for wild discus. I've been out with the discus collectors on the Nanay in Peru. I've seen plenty of videos. One thing that I can tell you for sure is that discus are very difficult to collect; they're not reducing the wild population no matter how hard they try. The other thing is that those rivers are much larger than you imagine them to be. The Nanay is nearly as big as the Mississippi so even if you are capturing a major portion of the population in several square miles there is still a huge habitat out there that isn't being touched. The Nanay is actually one of the smaller rivers where discus are collected so that tells you that there are plenty more in those other rivers. The Nanay population is actually a feral population of green discus that are doing very well there despite the collection. So there's no moral high ground for not buying wild caught discus. As far as crossing wild fish with domestic, I fully support it and I think others should too. Getting that wild vigor into domestic strains will only improve them.
So then that leads to inbreeding. Fish are much more tolerant of inbreeding than most other vertebrates. This seems to vary from species to species but for the most part inbreeding is not much of a problem. That is until you start getting into the deformities such as the bulldog, boomerang and football shaped discus. I just can't deal with those. The unicorn discus pictured earlier in the thread may not necessarily be due to genetics; sometimes these deformities are developmental, environmental in nature. When we refer to hybrids; most of our discus are not hybrids unless they have Heckel discus in their background and some will even debate that. Even if you consider the subspecies classification to be valid; a cross between subspecies isn't a hybrid and certainly crosses between strains is not a hybrid.
As far as strain names go; breeders are going to come up with names as a marketing ploy. I remember back in the 70s when small "blue face" discus were quite the rage; when all they were were hormone fed brown discus. Thankfully there isn't as much hormone treatment going on as there used to be because we have strains that show color early in life. Unfortunately it still goes on and one local dealer told me that his Malaysian supplier charges him extra for discus that have NOT been hormone treated.
Anyway, the things that get me annoyed (not outraged) are hormone treatments, deformities being sold as strains and decrying wild caught discus as being somehow immoral. Strain names will come and go but if you go by what you see you can tell that something sold as a super brilliant red sterling turquoise is nothing different from what someone else would sell as a turquoise and heaven only knows if they will breed true or not until you get their offspring.

[LizStreithorst]

What people call hybrid Discus has always griped me. The fact is that a true hybrid is a cross between 2 species and the offspring are infertile. My large white *** was a cross between a mare an a donkey. He was a hybrid.