"Discus Genetics and Breeding Info and Discussion"

[Rod]

2 regular looking Turks had fry which have checkerboard patterns... Is the checkerboard pattern recessive then?

No. The pattern of a turquoise discus appears to be controlled by many genes. It is single genes that are considered as dominant or recessive. Most of the "strains" are not true breeding, and differences between specimens are common place. Even for the wild discus this holds true. The pattern can be manipulated somewhat through breeding, and a certain consistency can be found, perhaps you could select for this in future breeding and produce your own line of checkerboards.

[alcastro]

Hi, I have fry from a blue snake x albino yellow Chrystal, I know that I will not get albinos but the fry at 7 weeks have 14 bar and 8-9 bars, can some tell me what the bars mean as far as snakes, or scorpions , thanks.
AL

[Rod]

Hi Al,

The ones with 14 bars are the snakes and scorpions. The ones with 9 bars are regular turks, and don't carry the genes that make snakes. This snake gene doesn't pass on to all the fry, and in every spawn there will be some that do not carry the mutant gene.

Good luck with the spawn, hope they turn out well.

Rod

[alcastro]

Thank you Rod will save some of each to get albinos one day.

[Patrick84]

Hi all... if I have pair of discus but their colour and patterns are not that stand out ..... is there any possibilities that their offsprings will somehow carry better genes than their parents? or should I separate them and pair them with some more beautiful partner?
thanks alot

[Rod]

Hi all... if I have pair of discus but their colour and patterns are not that stand out ..... is there any possibilities that their offsprings will somehow carry better genes than their parents? or should I separate them and pair them with some more beautiful partner?
thanks alot

Hi Patrick,

Well, the offspring will carry a copy of each gene from each parent. So better, worse....is probably not the right way of looking at it. It's more about combinations. Each pair can produce fry with much variation including pattern and color that stand out. Try your pair and see what they produce, most strains are not that true breeding and you likely will get some that are much better than others. Choose the ones you like the most and breed from them and gradually more and more of the progeny will have this stand out features.
Or cross breed with a wild or a quality domestic that has some of the features you like, and breed it into your line. This path will give you a lot of variation/potential for unusual/exciting combinations. I guess the biggest problem is keeping enough of the progeny to an adult size for further selection. With crossing, a lot of the progeny may be pretty low grade and the few true gems among them may not show until they are 4 or 5 months of age. This takes a lot of space and effort as well as patience. Most rewarding though

Good luck

Rod

[nc0gnet0]

This path will give you a lot of variation/potential for unusual/exciting combinations. I guess the biggest problem is keeping enough of the progeny to an adult size for further selection. With crossing, a lot of the progeny may be pretty low grade and the few true gems among them may not show until they are 4 or 5 months of age. This takes a lot of space and effort as well as patience. Most rewarding though

Truth! Be careful if you go this route and not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You would be surprised at how many dull blah discus I almost culled at 2-3" blossomed into beautiful discus at 5". It can be a lot of fun, but beware, you will gobble up a lot of tank space in a hurry.

-Rick

[jake]

Hi,

Off-late we have seen majority of shipments with "Red/Orange/Golden" based fish. e.g. Penang Erruption is an instant hit; Albino LSS are instant hit.
Why isn't there a blue genetics ? To my limited exposure I have not seen a blue striated fish for sale in a few shipments. Jeffery Yang used to ship amazing Altum Flora and Blue Turq. But not anymore. Dunno why.. may be a demand/supply thing?
Question to you on this topic is - If my goal is Blue Spotted fish what would be my parents to get that?
Again all variations are golden/red based; why a blue based mutation not tried may be tried but not sold or not as vibrant or appealing. Any thoughts?

Jack Wattley Discus still breed and sell turquoise strains, striated and others. Just google Jack Wattley Discus. These are still among my favorites.

[MGKelly]

I asked Gabe to send me pics of JW turquoise discus he had in stock, they weren't the same line Jack breed years ago.
Not that they weren't nice, just not the original strain that made JW discus popular.

Joe

Jack Wattley Discus still breed and sell turquoise strains, striated and others. Just google Jack Wattley Discus. These are still among my favorites.

[tonysdiscus]

Question I have a red melon that just spawned with my blue scorpion, do you think the fry, babies will be peppered or will be nice clean fish?

[rickztahone]

Question I have a red melon that just spawned with my blue scorpion, do you think the fry, babies will be peppered or will be nice clean fish?

peppered for sure. Not a great mix. Mixing a pb with a non pb is typically not a good idea unless you have an end game for your breeding program. Very few know how to actually pull this off.

[hnirvani]

What would I get with these two.
Seemingly marlboro, checkrboard.
My guess both are pegion Blood - so OK to breed and would get some Marlboro and checker board combinations?

[nc0gnet0]

That's not a Marlboro on top, it's a red/white. You will get more red whites and some melon looking discus, some of which will have varying degrees of pattern.

[hnirvani]

Wondering when they will hit climax,
They have been cleaning the slate since 4 days

[Akili]

Wondering when they will hit climax,
They have been cleaning the slate since 4 days

You never know when sometimes in a couple of day. I have a pair which has been mouthing the overflow pipe since the 17th of December and they finally spawned about 2 hours ago.