Discus Fish: The Colors and Species

Discus fish care can be fun, and understanding what is behind their colors is equally as fun.  Discus fish are a popular fish friend for any aquarium enthusiast because they are unique, colorful and come in many different varieties and colors. Discus fish usually have three base colors. The base, the secondary base, and then the stripes, or the last base. There are no rules which constitute a unique color or what it is in turn called, and the secondary color is like a finger print to a discus fish as it develops chemically rather than being chosen by genetics. For example, offspring of two spotted discus fish will most likely have spots but not in the same place or size as their parents.
Here are some of the different varieties of discus fish that you can see in the wild as well as in your local fish pet store:

• The red turquoise: this discus fish usually has a reddish brown color for its base with blue and green stripes for its secondary color and then black bars for the third and top base. It is also possible to find a leopard variety of the red turquoise discus where the red stripes appear as spots which are surrounded by a blue and green secondary color.
• The solid cobalt: this discus fish has a golden base color and when it is fully matured it is usually covered with a secondary color of blue. The solid cobalt may also have incomplete vertical black bars.
• The blue diamond: this discus fish is, in essence a solid cobalt where the black bars have been totally removed by breeding. Because these discus fish don’t have black bars, it makes them brighter and much lighter than other solid discus fish.
• Pigeon blood mutants: these discus fish have a gene which disrupts the black pigment and because of this they lack the tell tail vertical black bars. Because of the lack of black bars, these fish have a brighter and a much lighter base color and some discus fish might show a red, yellow or even cream primary color. Pigeon blood discus fish are actually a descendent of one fish which was found in Asia back in the 1980s.
• The snake skins: these discus fish actually have a mutation which makes their patterning much tighter and this means that they have many more black vertical bars but they also have a finer secondary color as well.
• The ghost: this discus fish is often grey with a large black vertical bar over the eye.
  
  
  

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