What to look for when purchasing Juveniles

[C_of_Discus]

Can anyone help me out?

I am planing on going to a breeders and purchasing a few Discus. around 3 + inches. What should I really be looking for?

I have always had a limited selection and this will be my first time of actually looking at large numbers of Juveniles.

I can spot a sick Discus from a mile away but these guys will all be in great shape.

Do I look for the most colour? They usually don't have much at that age.

Look for the roundness of Body?

Pick the biggest or like other cichlids most of the time males are larger than Females when young and growing.

Smallness of the eyes in relation to the body?


Any help would be great!


Tim

[Don Trinko]

If you are going to breed look for all the things you would look for when judging a discus in a contest. (round shape, eyes not too big, active, etc.) Don T.

[FishLover888]

It may depend on what kind of discus you are going to pick up. If you are getting something in the PB line, you may want to find the least peppering ones.

Take your time and make sure your selection don't have any kind of deformation on fins, gill and other part of the body. You will be looking at these fish for hours and hours in your home and anything out of the shape will make you unhappy everytime you look at them.

After that, I'll go with the fish most attractive to my eyes because I'll be the only judge in this case. If I'm happy with them, that's all it matters.

[Ryan]

In most cases, if the fry have been raised properly, the size should be pretty uniform within one spawn. I would try to keep all of my juveniles about the same size. If you buy several different types of discus from the breeder, I wouldn't get some at 2" and some at 3.5", if that makes sense. There's no reason why you couldn't, but I just like to keep all of mine about the same.

Physical appearance is obviously up to you. I like mine really round :D Also look for small, clear eyes with no chips in them, erect and fully developed fins, and fully developed gills. The fish should be perky, attentive, and hungry.

Most juveniles will not be brightly colored or fully spotted at a very small size unless they've been hormoned or color-fed. Turquoise, cobalt, red turquoise, and other striated fish are normally brown with faint blue markings on the face and fins up until 3" or so, then the color starts to slowly fade in. I would avoid fully colored fish unless they are pigeons, which can be pretty bright at even a small size.

Ryan

[C_of_Discus]

I have kinda asked this question in another thread but how long should it take give or take for a Juvenile to reach 3.5 or 4 inches?
I had a private person want to sell me some 3.5 that he has had for 5 months he got them at 1.5 inches they look good but are they a correct size? for that age? He has them in a BB tank 40% water changes they are really round look good but...

[ShinShin]

One thing that will help you pick which fish you want is your plans for them. There are two lines of thinking here. Are they display fish or is breeding your intent? Color or shape? If your intent is to breed, shape ought to outweigh color. It is easier to breed for color than shape. Display? Color may be the way to go. If you get really lucky, you'll find discus that have both.

Mat

[C_of_Discus]

Thanks everyone for the input!

[limige]

yup, just as mentioned, look for nice round shape and eager to eat.
big plus is checkout the parents for genetics, ask what generation they are. if your buying PB's try to find ones with no peppering it'll only get worst. most of all i look for genetics and round shape.

[April]

if its a breeder..with experience..ask them which ones they would choose and ask them why or to point it out. see if your thoughts are the same as theres. its good to hear what traits they like or see. sometimes different eyes see different things.
another thing..as another post has stated..if you go for all the biggest ones..you could possibly end up with alot of big males. no females..so dont get the tiniest..but maybe a few big strong bucks..and a few a bit smaller or medium size. hopefully girls. thats if your wanting them to pair eventually..and of course..all from the same spawn..well..siblings.
so maybe a few from different spawns..