that was one long sentence.
the reason they are so expensive at the LFS is because they are greedy and try to make as much of a buck as possible on mediocre (at best) discus. if you check out our sponsor section (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42) you can find way better quality than any lfs and i personally recommend Kenny Cheung (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=119), he has some cheap discus in smaller sizes which are top notch. you can usually find blue diamonds for around 20 bucks each at around 3" or so. stay away from lfs and read as much as you can here on SD, and welcome