Using hormones to bring out color in young Discus.

[bernie82]

Would you buy some incredibly beautiful 3 inch Discus if you knew that they were hormoned to enhance their color development prematurely?
Do fish treated with hormones develop normally and reproduce as consistantly as fish raised naturally.
I have been told by a few professional disuskeepers/sellers that many of the great breeders from Singapore and other parts of Asia send hormone treated fish to the USA but not into Asia and Europe. I find this hard to believe. Am I naive.
When a Discus keeper shows a hormoned fish at a show, can the judges detect the fact that it was hormoned?

[trusty]

i have heard that before and thats i think a good question ho would you know what your getting when you import

[Rod]

hi Bernie,

When i was in asia several farms gave me price lists and on some of the lists you could actually order hormoned or unhormoned discus. This was not at the farms that are producing the best discus, but those farms that deal in the 2nd rate discus. To be honest many inexperienced hobbiests would not buy a small unhormoned discus as they are not colorful enough, people are so used to seeing bright colors in baby discus that they believe they are buying inferior discus unless they are hormoned. Basically you can order the discus the way you want them, but experience says that the discus is more marketable if they are hormoned. MPO is i would never buy a known hormoned discus as you cannot be sure how much damage is done to the discus and the hormones may effect long term health.

Rod

[bernie82]

Thanks for the advise, Rod. Is there anyway of looking at a fish and knowing if it was hormoned?
If a fish was entered in a show, would it be disqualified if in the judges opinion, it was hormoned?