Leopard Discuss question

[suki243]

My father and i were interested in buying some leopard Discuss, we went to a Pet Emporium and the guy said that the fish he was selling was a leopard discuss, it was a discuss but it looks like a snake skin type of discuss its got a blueish bod and this red lines, we asked him aren't leopards suppose to have spots and he said the spots will come later as the discuss grows older, the lines will become spots, is that true or not.

[SantaFeDiscus]

Suki243-
I am no expert but I would say that wether the fish has spots or striations depends on the breeder and what name he gives his fish. I have some Green Leopards from Macsdiscus.com and they are vary nice looking fish but they are not spotted they are striated. If you go to discusfarm.com he has some nice looking spotted golden leopards. So I would say it depends on the breeder and what they name their fish and that if they don't have spots now (assuming their 3" or bigger) their not going to. They won't change from lines to spots. But they will become more vibrant in color and any light markings on them will come out even more as they grow, like spots or striations. I will try to post a pic of my GL.
Fred

[SantaFeDiscus]

another

[SantaFeDiscus]

another

[SantaFeDiscus]

yet another

[SantaFeDiscus]

last one

[jared]

Typically, lines do not turn into spots. Quite the opposite. Usually pattern changes in spotted strains are such that spots form and then merge into lines in places leaving spotted portions on a striated fish. JMO

[Carol_Roberts]

Jared is correct. Spots grow together to form striations. I bet the pet store is selling red turks

[paletka]

If fish have spots at age of 6 month's, most of the time spot's will be on adult
fish. Some times spots will form a line but I think line will for spots in the future.

chris

[dalelad]

the photos above look like spotted snakes.

it's not really right to say that spots join up to become striations or vice versa.

'spots' sometimes begin to appear at initial stages of a developing fish because the base colour matures as a fish grows. this maturity of the base colour, coupled with the development of the 2nd layer (striations layer) make the development seem like spotting. later, this 'spotting' will naturally form a line because basically, it is the base layer.

spots develop only at a later stage. in some spotted fish, there are throw-backs whereby the spotting actually joins up to become 'lines' on the fore-head of the fish. it is thus a throw-back into wild form. spotting is recessive a gene and thus in-breeding would cause such cases to occur.

hope this helps!

[caca]

:)hi, i am no expert neither. names of fishes are not important. different breeders would give their fishes different names, which sound nice and attractive. if u want to buy fishes, go for the fishes that u like, not the name or title that sound good. :) it's my opinion
the lady in the fishshop, she told me u can tell it's a snake skin or leopard skin when her fishes are young, though the case of lines splitting into spots does exist. some fishes' spots will grow into rings too.
if my information is wrong, correct me :P

[suki243]

well thanks guys, i went back the next day and they were all gone :-\

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Lines break up into spots. As to what age/size, that does depend upon the strain and genetic background of the fish. They usually begin to breakup into spots(if they will ever have spots) when they are 3.5" long. If you have a fish that has full body spots/near full body spots at that size or smaller, then they have been hormoned. You will notice that the spots will fade and will turn into lines, that is the hormone wearing off and the true colors showing through. Those fish wont get their full spots until they are near adult size.

-Ryan

[Anonapersona]

I think that I've read that there is no breeding true for leopards at this time, so from a spawn that should have leopards, only some of the fish will turn out to be leopards, true?

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

That all depends upon the genetic background of the leopard being bred. If it is a leopard throwback from a LSS crossing, then yes, they will not breed true. Now if you have a leopard that has yet to be crossed to anything (doubtful) then they will breed much truer than a leopard throwback from a LSS. JMO

-Ryan