Expensive Discus

[dismantle me]

The other day i went to one of the several fish shopping centers I find myself goning to a lot and saw a tank with a few 3 inch discus. So I thought to myself "They would make a lovely addition to my fish tank," then, I saw the price. $30! For a 3 inch fish. Is it a rip off or are discus just expensive?

 

[kikuchiyo]

Discus are often called the king of freshwater fish. They grow large (the ones you saw were very young), visually impressive, and they require somewhat specalized conditions to raise (they don't like any toxins, so some discus owners do two water changes a day and they like it warm, 85 at least - though discus owners I know say they're easy to take care of after that) and they are very shy. They are also parental cichlids who pair up and take care of young. Add to that the number of rare color morphs and they can get super expensive. Larger fish, rarer colors equal a higher price.

Be very happy you didn't buy them on a whim.

If you check aquabid, I would think 30 is low end. It takes a bit of work to grow those small ones into the really big impressive fish (usually done in a BBA to keep the gunk to minimum).

 

[Watcher74]

Right, Discus are not a good idea to pick for "additions". This is a fish that you build a tank around. Usually as a species only tank.

Not the sort of fish you throw into a community tank.

 

[chkltcow]

$30 is way cheap. Yesterday I hit 2 pet stores while I was out... Petsmart being one of them. PS had decent sized ones for $49 and the LFS I hit had them at $65 or $100 for the pair they had. One pet store I saw even had them at $99 each.

 

[125gJoe]

We got ours online since there were no decent Discus to be found at any fish store in this area (central Florida).

$30 per Discus is a good price for a nice looking fish....

 

[PumaWard]

$30 is cheap...

Most online breeders charge $30-45 for a 3 inch fish depending on the strain... then you're looking at a $60 shipping fee: minimum, usually it's more in the $75-80 range.

However, they are better, healthier fish than most LFS's have. Most LFS's get culls from asia, and the fish are often stunted or color injected.

 

[anonapersona]

growing discus

I am growing out discus now. I feed 4x/day, twice is a hand made beef and seafood mix with expensive vitamins added. I clean the bottom of the tank 2x/day and change water daily. I can't go on vacation and I can't leave the house for too long unless someone else will feed them. It is a lot of work.

To anyone in Houston, I will be selling some young discus, red turquoise, in about a month when they reach 3" and have more color. Some have good splashes of blue now, but I want to see them all coloring well before I let any go. PM me if you want to see them when it is time.

 

[PumaWard]

Anonapersona,

Do you have any pictures of your young red turqs. I have a young discus who seems to have striations coming out (not many though) and I am trying to figure out what strain he is.

 

[anonapersona]

No photos yet

I don't have any photos yet, I'm still waiting to see exactly what they are as well.

For red turks, they have gotten color rather soon, perhaps the high krill content food (NLS growth) has something to do with that.

Some (25%) are silver with black stress bars and both blue and green starting in the fins. Some (50%) have turned golden with black bars, some others (25%) are golden with blue speckles all over-- lines on top and spots on bottom. One of the biggest has a high body and is deep tobacco brown with blue speckles and a deep deep burgundy starting in the fins. I am amazed at the variety.

The parents are both red turks and one has a faint heckel bar. Most of the fish have broken or y stress bars here and there. The prior generation is unknown.

I wonder if some will be a throwback to the grandparent colors, and what that might be. I do not know if the ones going blue with green might be something other than red turks. I wonder if there is some wild brown in the parentage, for the golden and brown color is a surprise to me (maybe that is normal but no one has mentioned that!)

For now, the colors are faint and I am terrible at taking photos of fish, can't seem to get the camera to snap when the fish is in the right spot.

I am a novice at this, so I read and study and wonder a lot!

There are photo sections at SimplyDiscus and DAAH that might help you discover a style/strain for your fish.

 

[MyShrimpDied]

The discus at my LFS are $75 a pop.

~ MyShrimpDied