Hi Guys

Hi my name is John. I'm 18 years old and live with my dad in PTA. We started keeping Discus about 6 months ago and are very excited about it. A guy we bought fish from, Jan suggested we go on here and get answers for ALL our questions! I am desperate to achieve success in breeding these beautiful fishes! I'd like to one day achieve creating my own strain like the new Snow Leopard i saw on the internet. I dont know how this is done but would love to get some advise from you guys. Thanks for all the help. My dad says one day we could become the first to breed Heckel Discus in South Africa, and thats my next goal. Just need to find some first!

 

Hi John, nice to see another PTA guy here. Welcome and enjoy.

Don't know anything about discus, won't take long before an experienced member has a ago

 

Welcme

 

Welcome John.

Please ask Professor Bellstedt in the "Ask the Professor" subforum about Discus. His advice will certainly be the most helpful, but worth the wait, as you may have to wait a little while for a reply as his knowledge is very sought-after around here!

 

Welcome JohnJ.

 

hi Johnj. I'm also kinda new here. Glad to find so much enthusiasm in someone your age about fish. I'm a fellow Discus lover and wanna race u to that Heckel deadline. . .if ever!

 

welcome to tasa !

discus are beautiful fish I hope you have success .

 

Wondered when pictus was going say something about the hackle

 

vis, u right, it even gets to me! But damn it wud be great to have a tankfull of their fry!

 

So you plan on breeding Hecles too then? Are you breeding now? If so what are you crossing?

Sorry. I'm asking Pictus that question. Suppose I should have said that.

 

phew! Slow down JohnJ. Firstly, saying i plan to breed Heckels is like saying you plan on going to the moon. . . Its been done, but in the past 50 years only a handful of people have done Heckel to Heckel breeding. That in itself states the complications. At the moment I am still growing out on most fish. I restarted breeding completely with new fish, and most are about 3 mths away from breeding. I do have a Snakeskin pair(Red SS male blue SS Female) but they only 13mths approx and no fry yet,they still learning. I'm attempting to have strain pairs only to see where that takes me, and with the excess fish I'll try and play with crossing.

 

So all the offspring will be snakeskin right? What is the characteristics of SS compared to a Snow Leopard? And if I get a snow leopard pair, then all fry will be Snow leopard right? What about Heckle fry? And you say Heckle to Heckle breeding is difficult, what is easier then?

 

Hi JohnJ, Welcome to TASA!! Whats easier than Heckles?? Guppies!! Lol!!

Have you ever bred anythiing before??

Maybe try breeding something like Rams or Kribs first?? That will then get you used to the attention you have to spend if you want to succeed in breeding!!

Then if you are successful in breeding and raising them, try something a little harder, and then once you've succeeded with them, consider trying Discus!! Breeding them is not the hard part (although hard enough), its the successful raising of the fry thats the hard part!!

Regards
Big G!

 

Gosh you have some questions. I'm kinda new here so just now someone get ticked of with me, but i'll try answering and where/if I'm wrong, please correct me anyone. Your 1st Question. No, not all fry will be SS. SS is a mutation from Turq so i'm sure some fry will b Turq. SS have actually been found in the wild. The strain is characterized by its fine pattern blue lines and multiple stress bars. Most SS have 14 instead of 9, and some even have 21. There has however been 9 bar SS but they are not around anymore. So, compared to a Leopard they are a mutation, leopards are selective breeding involving Red spotted greens. As far as Heckels are concerned, they are notoriously difficult to keep and more so to breed. Some find them dull and boring, yet when the ph drops to about 5 their colour really only comes to life. Heckel to blue, cobalt, turq has been done, always with male heckel, they seem 'breedable' yet the fry seem to have fertility issues from generation 2 onwards.

 

as far as Snow leopards are concerned, having a pair will not give you snow leopard fry. This is a matter of genetics. I dont think SL can ever be a strain. Their fry will resemble the parents, in this case Snow white and Leopardskin, and if they are bred again you will get Snow leopards with deteriorating spotting, and from them you'll go back to square 1. It might sound questionable but in reality thats what happens. Some fish you see will just never give you similar looking fry, but will have feedback to their parents.

 

Hello and Welcome

 

Hi and Welcome

 

Hi Pictus, I'm John's dad, John (haha). We dont understand your post abou SL. You say they will resemble the parents, but isnt that what we want? Some advise. We now have some Marlboro Reds, blue diamond, white diamond and Pigeon bloods. What would be good crosses to go with?

 

Hi John, there is a section called ask the professor, he will be able to tell you things about discuss and breeding that you would find hard to get elsewhere.

 

Guys I'm not trying to tred on toes here. John u shud ask the prof. In the meantime what i meant is the following. In cosmos flowers you get white and red flowers. When their pollan is mixed up, you get 'blending' which result in pink flowers. The seeds of the pink flower however will result in red and white flowers. SL is the same. Parents- Snow white x Leopard. Offspring SL. If this fry is inbred it will again result in SW and LS fry. This circle will continue 4 ever with only quality deteriorating due to inbreeding. As far ur fish are concerned, just enjoy them and b happy if you get a breeding pair, no matter what the cross. This way u will gain in experience and get a better understanding of this fish. As far as strains breeding true are concerned, very few do. Wattley Turq do. Blue diamonds do, they have recessive genes which cause this. Pigeons are dominant. We have to remember that some strains are mutations while others are blended colours. Pigeon is a mutation. Arguably all domestic originate from Blue/Brown discus, with the Heckel and green playing virtually no part in the process. I'm sure the prof will b able to expand on this, but dont beat urself up about this. Just keep them alive and see where it takes you. Its a long road believe me!