Discus colour up

[angelfishlover]

Hi,i want ask a colour up question.


The father is a leopard skin cross with turqouise.I saw that the father's bars are much closer so i saw that some of the fry i bought from the breeder got closer gaps between the lines then i suggest this must be a leopard baby.The mother the gap between the lines are wider so i suggest that the one with wider gap is turqouise.


Strangely the turqouise babies all start to have bluish lines on their head and the top and bottom part of the body at this length but the leopard baby is slower at colouring and it haven't appear the bluish lines yet.So can any1 tell me is it normal for turqouise babies to start colouring up at this age and leopard skin babies not to colour up this age???All were bought about 2 weeks ago. Plz this is my first time taking care of a discus fish!!!!!!So my knowledge about discus is about 40% since i read up books on how to take care of them.

[Star_Rider]

are the loepard more red in color?

if they have red the red may not color up until sub adult.

mine are cobalt reds..the red is currently a brick red color and they won't show a true red until full adult. they have improved from the early colors over the year that I have been raising them.

I found the blue started showing up sooner and by 4 -5 months they had improved the blue wcolor 100%

white is another 'late' blooming color. my diamonds are still grey in color even tho the velvelt red is developed.

so how they color up is due in part to genetics and in part to the environment.

[angelfishlover]

It does not have any red in colour.it's like going to about two months since the breeder brought it up for a month. my leopards,the dots are red but body is bluish-green that is wat i saw on their father.Wah so late for about 4-5 months like that by the end of 3 months my turqouise is going to full bloom but the leopards still dull.But for me,leopards are the most beautiful of all discus strains.

[Star_Rider]

snakeskins, leopards etc may colorup more slowly..give them time as some may not develop their full color until they are adults.

[angelfishlover]

ooo i only noe turqouise is very fast to colour.

[Rbishop]

While it could just be a maturity thing, I would also be wondering about water quality and food variety.

[angelfishlover]

oh water quality u wan heh.

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-10
ph-5

Foods consits of freeze dried tubifex cause scared later feed live may bring harmful pathogens and flakes.I'm going buy sinking granules for discus.

[Star_Rider]

Discus seem to do well with a high protein diet.

many breeder use a home recipe which may include beefheart, shrimp etc.

I feed mine brine shrimp,mysis shrimp, sinking bits, bloodworms(midge larvae-they love these) I make a point of finding a specific brand of BW.
I also supplement the wet food(frozen) with vitamins including spirulina.

[severum mama]

I feed my discus pretty much exactly the same foods as star rider, except I buy brine shrimp that are enriched with sprulina. My discus love frozen foods, but tend to turn their noses up at other kinds of foods. They will occasionally accept flake, but never pellets. You may have difficulty getting your discus to eat the granules, even if they are a discus formula.

[Star_Rider]

I trined mine to eat them by mixing the colorbits with the bloodworms and brineshrimp..I mix up all three..

[angelfishlover]

uhmm actually u all are out of my topic ur talking about food but anyway i think i'm going buy frozen bloodworms.My discus only pick up their food when it reaches the bottom of the tank so it is kinda hard for me to teach em how to eat flakes.Btw they hate the flakes i gave them they will taste and run back to their hideout.The freeze dried tubifex i gave and that day i bought some brine shrimp,they ate greedily.