Is keeping albino discus harder?

[gcalberto]

So where I live, fishkeepers (even very experienced breeders) pretty much always say that keeping albino discus is a lot harder.
I've done some research on this topic, but I did not find much on that, except that it's harder to breed them, which I don't intend on doing.
Does anyone have experience on, for example, getting a 3" albino discus, keeping it healthy and have it grow to a decent size (not a jumbo size, but 5" or so). Should I expect any extra difficulties when doing that with an albino discus, other than their supposed worse eyesight?
I just got this platinum albino discus. The previous owner had it for a year and said it grew just about half an inch in the mean time (it's approximately 3" now). It's skinny, and looks a bit stunted, but thankfully it's eating well and I'll quarantine with with praziquantel and metronidazole, just in case.

[nah]

Not any more than any other discus. My albino is the healthiest in my tanks.

[bluelagoon]

That one won't get any bigger or much bigger. The first year is when they put on the most inches. For some reason this discus became stunted and will never grow any bigger, no matter how well it's cared for.

[Willie]

In general, putting the albino gene into standard varieties do not weaken the fish in any way. The albinos I had grew extremely well, often better than other discus in the tank. In general, I found that having only one copy of the albino gene - the so-called 'Intermediate' type - made for a better looking fish than having two copies.

In the case of the platinums in general, these fish have been inbred for multiple generations to fix the strain. Most of them are weak, not because of the albino gene, but because of inbreeding. For a long time, I didn't see any platinum discus > 5". They were very nice looking, but clearly not vigorous. Recently though, I've seen the strain improve. On my last visit to Bay Area Discus, I saw platinums with good growth potential - so better fish are coming.

Having said all that, the fish in the picture is badly stunted and looks diseased. If that fish was in my fish room, it would be euthanized because it'll never recover to become a good looking discus. But if you want to try, keep this fish in a disease nursery - not with your other discus.