GREEN DISCUS

[cleaver]

HI IWAS WONDERING WHAT TYPES OF GREEN DISCUS STRAINS ARE THERE I SAW SOME ON A AUCTION SITE LABELED AS SAPHIRE GREEN I DID A SEARCH ON GREEN SAPHIRE AND COME UP WITH NOTHING.THE FISH LOOKED LIKE BLUE DIAMONDS BUT WERE MINT GREEN :D

[alpine]

Cleaver, try Barb Newell in Canada, she has some Ocean Greens,
Canada Discus (Barb Newell) - Ontario, Canada (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=56),

roberto.

[Ryan]

Don't put much emphasis on fancy names given to discus. They are mostly just for marketing purposes and there's no real standardized system for naming discus color morphs. What you saw were probably what are commonly called "Ocean Greens," which are basically from Blue Diamonds but they have a greener tint to them. This may also depend a lot on lighting, so be warned that blues may look green and vice versa.

Ryan

[fishmama]

I am not sure where you are located, but Discus KC was working on a very nice stock of Ocean Greens (lots of irridescence).

[aquaticplantman]

I'm pretty sure I know what auction listing you're talking about. Ryan is right, don't put too much emphasis on the name. Those fish are a cross between two different strains, and I'm pretty sure they are not an established strain. The breeder has a right to call them whatever they want -- if you like the actual fish, go ahead and buy them based on their own merit. As is often stated here, start with the sponsors of Simply for buying new stock. Not only does it help support this forum, but I'm convinced we have some of the best breeders/importers around anyway.

-- Matt H.

[ShinShin]

Larryp is a sponsor here on Simply. He is partners with Bill Deem (Bill is his father-in-law). True, they are a cross of a strain of Tefe Green discus (a very nice strain they have, by the way) and an Ocean green, and may not breed perfectly true at this point. But perhaps the buyer isn't interested in breeding. I recommend their fish based on my personal experience with them. Bill is an old timer in the discus world.

Mat

[April]

true..what shinshin said. bill deem has some excellent stock. as a matter of fact..theres some there i want..some of the good genes..bill put many years into .

[White Worm]

larry P is not a sponsor and hasnt been for a while as far as I know. seems he comes up with a new strain monthly. purple fuscia, purple knight, green saphire, fireburst, blue tang. he definately has the market on names. funny how some of the pictures i have seen in the past were the exact same pictures for two different strains he was selling. Another Aquabid master.

[brewmaster15]

LarryP is not a sponsor on the forum anylonger, but he is a member here and sells thru aquabid.

hth,
al

[cleaver]

didnt take long to figure out the fish i was talking about.i think when im ready to buy i will look up a sponcer here the last two fish i bought off that web site were grade a price and grade c fish

[April]

good plan.where do you live. check out jack of discuskc in the sponsor section..or cary or greencountry discus for nice home growns..or kenny of international discus have very nice imports. theres others also..just go throuugh the list..see who has what..and fone them. best way to sound them out and see who can ship what etc etc . they are also great for helping and advice etc.

[Reagan]

Just bought one actually! I have bought from Bill for a few years now and am always in awe. Of course they are just for my enjoyment, but I think they are fantastic. My new guy is pretty young, so wouldn't photo much better than the photo that is out there. I can't wait to see how he develops.

[Green Country Discus]

I for one would love to see a truly GREEN Discus.Would be a first for me! At my age that would be ok ;) .

[White Worm]

didnt take long to figure out the fish i was talking about.i think when im ready to buy i will look up a sponcer here the last two fish i bought off that web site were grade a price and grade c fish

Not surprising.

[Barb Newell]

Some of the offspring from ocean green are blue some really are green. This guy (excuse the chin, he's a sweetheart) is really green. I took the pic with a fish with blue behind him so you could see the difference. They're really hard to photograph.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/BarbNe/BlueGreen.jpg

Barb

[dpt8]

Barb, a couple years ago I had contacted you about some green turqs. Our friend Gary had bught some at the time. Did you ever find a trans shipper to ship to United States or do you know of anyone in the U.S. raising your green turqs ?????

[ShinShin]

Andrew,

I bought some truly green discus from Wattley in the late '90's, solid green with no blue tint on them at all.

Mat

[Green Country Discus]

Mat, I would love to see/own some ;) . Wattley/Gabe (?) advertised green Mambas on their Website, looked really great, I haven't seen good feedback.
Keep smiling,

[ShinShin]

Green Mambas is what I had.They were solid metallic green. The male was the most spectacular looking discus that I had ever seen in person. Unfortunately, I killed him. I purchased some more about two years ago. They were not the same. I got rid of all 6 of them. I also saw one at the ACA in Texas. Clearwater discus has a line of JW's Green Mambas going and had one at the show. It didn't look anything like my first 5 did either.

Mat

[Green Country Discus]

Mat, thanks for the information. In your opinion, has the quality Green Mamba strain been lost. Any chance you got a pic of your male before he passed on?
Thanks,

[ShinShin]

Let's put it this way, unless I go see Gabe and pick them out, I am not going to buy anymore. Wattley's sold a bunch of GM's because of my praise on the forums of the first bunch. Gabe told someone he had a hard time keeping up with the orders. I don't know why my first batch looked so different than all the other GM's I have seen. Mine didn't even look like the pic that was on the web site for awhile. No pictures to show either of the 5 I bought originally. They turned out to be 4 females and 1 male. I kept the nicest female and the male - sold thee others. Then the male died because of a boneheaded mistake that a rookie would make. I knew better, but did it anyway.

Mat

[Ed13]

Let's put it this way, unless I go see Gabe and pick them out, I am not going to buy anymore. Wattley's sold a bunch of GM's because of my praise on the forums of the first bunch. Gabe told someone he had a hard time keeping up with the orders. I don't know why my first batch looked so different than all the other GM's I have seen. Mine didn't even look like the pic that was on the web site for awhile. No pictures to show either of the 5 I bought originally. They turned out to be 4 females and 1 male. I kept the nicest female and the male - sold thee others. Then the male died because of a boneheaded mistake that a rookie would make. I knew better, but did it anyway.

Mat

Anyone close to gabe's hacthery than can ask and take pics of the green mambas and/or ocean greens? I recently saw a pick of a GM(the person deleted it) and like Mat was dissapointed it looked like a grayish/greenish slightly metallic but the wierd markings ar what looked odd.

Mat, may we know what the mistake was, I for one don't want to do it.:(

[ShinShin]

Sure, I have posted it in the past. I did the number one offense when acquiring new discus. I was in a Seattle LFS one day and saw a beautiful wild green discus in a tank of many wild green and blue wilds. There was a large male cutting her out of the bunch for himself. She was the most round and colorful green discus I had ever seen, even though she had few spots. I just had to have her even though I had no room for anymore discus at the time. I bought her and the big male and put them in the tank with the GM's and a couple other discus. In maybe 4 weeks all were dead. I had the Mamba's for over a year at the time as well as five other discus from Wattley's in another 55gal tank. None had ever been sick until that time. You will never hear me say that I didn't QT any new arrivals after that. All I can tell you is that when the Mamba's got sick they quit eating, the green turned to pale grey, their dorsal and anal fins turned black and nothing seemed to cure the fish.

So, a message to all new to discus, don't chance losing what could be the nicest fish that you will ever own because you failed to QT a new fish just because it looks healthy. I was not new to discus. I knew better. That's what reall chaffs my butt.

Mat

[Ryan]

Dan (daninthesand) went to Wattley's and took pictures several years ago. He posted a picture of a discus that was supposedly a green mamba. He did have some green, but weird markings and the fish looked in pretty rough shape. That's the last I heard of the strain.

I just checked out the Wattley website and they are using the picture that Dan took:

http://wattleydiscus.com/pictures/p20.jpg

I remember the original picture they used for the fish and it was very different. I guess that has been lost, though.

[White Worm]

Not a very attractive pic. Wouldnt make me run out and get some.

[Polar_Bear]

Barb Newell has some OG's that look like the ones Mat first described, at least from pictures. I happen to also really like the OG's and I purchased some from Bill Eagan. Unfortunately mine look far more like BD's than they do OG's.
I think lighting probably plays a distinct part in their coloration and would suggest a color temperature around 8000K to bring out the best color in them.

[White Worm]

heres mine

21695

and yes, it does matter with the lighting. She is sometimes a darker blue looking color, green like you see and right now, she looks almost baby blue.

[aquaticplantman]

Just to add to the discussion, I was told these fish were spawned from a white butterfly crossed with a Blue Diamond X Ocean Green. I never saw any pics of the parents, but that description makes sense. I think in this picture you can see some of the green. They have both blue and green highlights. I've never been able to get a photo of it, but at certain angles, their entire body has a slight green color. They're still maturing and I hope they'll show more color as they age.

I'd really like to be able to get some nice solid green (no striations) Ocean Greens sometime.

-- Matt H.

[Ed13]

Just to add to the discussion, I was told these fish were spawned from a white butterfly crossed with a Blue Diamond X Ocean Green. I never saw any pics of the parents, but that description makes sense. I think in this picture you can see some of the green. They have both blue and green highlights. I've never been able to get a photo of it, but at certain angles, their entire body has a slight green color. They're still maturing and I hope they'll show more color as they age.

I'd really like to be able to get some nice solid green (no striations) Ocean Greens sometime.

-- Matt H.

Wow I really like those, there is something subtlely attractive about them!

[kaceyo]

Wow I really like those, there is something subtlely attractive about them!

I agree Ed. I think they might be better looking if the blue/green stayed light in the center of the body, giving it a pearlescent(sp?) quality. Very nice looking fish as is too.

Kacey

[April]

i was told if you bred the bd to a yellow solid.
but i have also heard..some from bd spawns are sold as ocean greens as their colour was a bit more greenish.

[Lance_Krueger]

April,
You are right, in what you say, at least as far as I've been told. I bought some Ocean Greens from Jeff at DiscusFarmUS a couple of years ago. They were supposedly the last babies out of a pair of Ocean Greens from the "Ocean Green Creator- Lee Koon Yen." That quote comes from Asian Discus 1 Book, page 106. He is the developer of them, and supposedly they're a cross between a blue diamond and Pure Golden. He was getting rid of the strain, since Lee Koon Yen was going after spotted discus, and supposedly has the best spotted discus around. I also bought from Jeff at the same time some "Red-eyed Blue Diamonds," which were half the price of the OG's. I had them together in the same tank as the OG's. Got them at 2 inches. I could hardly tell any difference between the two while they were in the same tank and in the same light. The only way I could tell the difference was by looking at the eyes, which were redder in the blue diamonds, and more amber in the OG's. These fish never were very healthy, and two years later, they're probably only about 5 inches in size, and don't look good. They just seem to fade away. When I first got them, they got a bunch of my other fish sick with exoparasites totally across my fish room. I probably only have about five left, out of eighteen. I was told by Jeff (who actually was great in helping me diagnose the exoparasite problem and treating it) that because of the Golden genetics in them, that they are much more sensitive and harder to raise. I wasn't real happy with them in the long run (though no fault of Jeff's), and have quit my search for truly green discus (unless I can get ahold of some of Barb Newell's and give them a try). I have gotten some other blue diamonds from another source, and some of them tend to have a slightly greener hue than the others. But it's so slight, it's negligable. Until I see a truly green Ocean Green in person, I doubt I'll ever buy any more Ocean Greens. Mine supposedly came from "the source," which I don't doubt, and they didn't turn out that great. Probably my fault in the way I raised them.
Lance Krueger

[CatKing]

Hi,

I have this OG bought from Barb Newell about six month ago. Because of the flash light, overall it's color is a bit darker than the photo.

[CatKing]

Hi all,

I am sorry for the mistake. It is not a OG but a Rose Red and Snakeskin cross from Barb.

[Jason]

you can get a very ocean-greenish discus if you cross a BD with an original Wattley turquoise strain like "corulea". If your lucky in the F1's or for sure in the F2's you will get a few barless fish with blueish heads and blue in the fins but the rest of the body will have an overall greenish cast to it.

[kaceyo]

Jason,
Do you have any of Jacks old Corulea Blue's?

[April]

i think he does..he has a green one over here at my house. i have a pic..but..i better check with jason if thats him. hes greenish. he is his wattley one. Jaosn get him working.

[Jason]

I have 1 old male left that I don't think is interested in breeding anymore :( . I tried though, kept the line pure since the early 90's only out-crossing to Schmidt-Focke #6, wich I'm sure Jack would have approved of.

The closest fish I've seen to those would be wild greens with turquoise heads like this one from my exporter in Iquitos.
Alberto (aquatechnics.net) should be able to get some if your interested.

[April]

heres jasons green wattley guy. hes getting older..he has wrinkles. : 0

[tpl*co]

heres mine

21695

and yes, it does matter with the lighting. She is sometimes a darker blue looking color, green like you see and right now, she looks almost baby blue.

I had an OG that I got from Kenny that was up there as one of my all around favorite fish, she was so beautiful. Not quite the same color as a blue diamond, I would joke and call her Aquamarine colored discus.

Tina

[kaceyo]

Hey Jason,
Are you sure you put the right pic up? Not doubting you at all, I've just never seen a wild with a solid green or blue body. I would think a wild like that would cost a pretty penny. Is that your fish?

Kacey

[Jason]

its the right pic, not my fish though. That pic was taken in Peru.

[brewmaster15]

I have seen Greens like the one Jason Posted... problem is the Greens tend to lose the irridescent sheen and color in captivity and become more ruddy in color if given red pigments in their diet. Same happens to the blue faced heckels often.

hth,
al

[ShinShin]

Matt H,

Jack Wattley himself told me that the Green Mamba's he had back then when I bought mine were RSG x Ocean Green. He was trying to develope a solid green discus with red spots.

Mat