How to choose young discus?

[wild_amazon]

I saw some young discus today of various strains and they are around 5 cm (head to tail). Most of them have pointy face. I only saw few that are quite round in shape.
Do they change in shape as they get older. Will they get rounder?
I suspect that some of them will grow up with pointy shape face.
Most of the blue diamonds are quite pointy, while the snakeskin are quite round.
Can somone tell me how to choose young fish that will grow into nice round shape. I personally put more important to the shape than the colour and the size.

Thanks.

[Nathan]

the BD (blue diamonds) usually dont have as good shape as other strains, but yes the shape does change as they get older, as long as they have plenty of room to grow and are fed correctly depending on the strain they do grow into better shape. also i dont think pigeon bloods have as good shape cant quite remember.

HTH

nathan

[mcloughlin2]

You will not find young discus with perfect round body shape...

Base your choice on colour, and health at this stage but keep in mind do not choose a discus with obvious bad body shape....

Below are some pictures of ben's baby bluediamonds

And the albino's are from merrilyn ( ladyred ) so both are of good quality.... :wink:

[wild_amazon]

Thank you for the information and the pictures.
They look like very good quality discus, the older ones are almost round in shape and very consistent in size.
I think the one that I saw look more like the young BD picture but their eyes are a bit bigger. I don't think they are stunted but I can't be sure.
I think it's best if I go back to the shop and take some pictures tomorrow and get opinions from experience discus keeper here.
I prefer to get good stocks than finding out 8 months down the track that they are not going to be nice and round.

[Merrilyn]

If you want to end up with nice round fish, then you should be looking for the roundest youngsters that you can find. The shape will improve as they grow, but by the time they are ready for sale, they should be showing the beginnings of their true shape.

A large eye on a small fish is not good, it indicates stunting. Look for something else.

[wild_amazon]

Here are some of the pictures that I took this morning.
They first few pictures are blue diamonds and the last few are red spotted discus.
I hope this can provide some indications on how they will look when they grow bigger. I have no idea how the red spotted colour and pattern will be when they grow bigger.
By the way the BD are $40 each and the red spotted $30 each.

I also saw a magnificent wild green adult, perfect round shape and nice colour. But at $280 each (only 2 available) is a bit expensive for me.

Please advise if they are good quality discus.
Thank you.

[wild_amazon]

More pics.

[Nathan]

the BD's have quite good shape and the price is normal for any LFS, the other discus shape look ok but i wouldnt be buying as there fins dont look to great but it could be just the picture.

nathan

[wild_amazon]

Thanks Nathan,

Can you tell from the size of the eyes if they are stunted.
Looking at the pictures from mcloughlin2, they have smaller eyes.

[Merrilyn]

When you compare the picture of Ben's baby blue diamonds, with the pics you took, you can see a big difference in the size of the eye. I'd pass on the blue diamonds I think, and wait for something a litle better.

The red spotted greens are a more interesting batch. Eye is more in proportion to size of fish. The main one in your photos has some strange markings on the dorsal fin, and one of them has a very pointy face, but I think there could be some nice fish in there.

The red spots intensify as the fish ages, but the number of spots usually remains the same. Some are just too young to show their spots yet, but in all, they look like a fairly nice batch.

[wild_amazon]

I didn't buy the fish.
Will keep looking for quality fish. Thanks.