Choosing the good from the junk...!
Don't buy and sigh

At first I was puzzled and confused, when I got the chance to choose my own Discus. I don't seem to be able to choose a Discus, without flaws. I am not going for perfection, but I don't want to sigh and complain about the Discus, that were purchased one week ago.

To solve my problem, I went on the Internet as usual. Nope, I found nothing much and almost no help on choosing a good Discus. Therefore, I want to help other Discus lovers who are in my former situation.

How to choose? Let's go from head to tail.

But first...

• This is a good test to find out whether the Discus in a particular tank is healthy or not. Ask yourself this question.
  
  Do the Discus come eagerly to the surface when you raise your hands above the tank or knock the glass? Or are they inactive, dark and fearful with every move you make? If the latter is true, never ever think of buying a Discus from that tank. It's smarter of you not buying a Discus, than watch it die a few days later.

The head

• The head should have a rounded curvature, not sloping downwards.
  

The eyes

• I always miss this. Make sure the eyes are red! But sometimes it depends on your preferences and exception too. Some people like the Pigeon Blood strain to have white eyes. Snow White (a solid white Discus) on the other hand, must have white eyes.
  
  
• Do you see some discus with a nick, slight cut, chip or indentation at the edge of an eye. Don't buy them. Their immunities against infection is quite weak They will not breed well and genetically weak caused by too much in-breeding.

The gills

• Make sure the gill plates cover the gills totally and you see no trace of redness from the gills. This physical defect is caused by vitamin and minerals deficiencies at the development stage.

>> Look at this little Blue Diamond here. You can see that it has a short gill cover. It's also rather fearful and it's dark in colour.

• Look from the front of the Discus closely. Make sure the gills open at a similar degree. Discus with one gill plate opening more than than the other is suffering from some gill fluke infestations or nitrates bloom.

• Look at the general shape of the Discus, is it round? It must not be an arrow-like shape! Look at it when it has it's fins extended and flared. A Discus's shape can't be judged when it has it's fins down. Besides Discus with their fins constantly down are either afraid or sickly. If you are looking at high bodied or high fin Discus, then they would not be round. It's a exception.
  
  

• See if the body of the Discus is dark or even black!

• Discus that have sunken bodies are attacked by malnutrition or internal parasites. So avoid them at all cost.
  
  

• The body coloration must be consistent. The Leopards should have spots covering the entire body.
  

• This point is quite hard to adhere by. But you have to choose a Discus according to the attributes of it's own strain. For example, a Blue Diamond should be a solid blue with no strips or dots on any part of the body. Leopards should have spots not elongated dotes that look like lines across the body.
  

Fins

• Look at the dorsal fin closely. See that it forms a perfectly rounded shape. No ragged, jaggled or fraying fins. There shouldn't be any part of the fins that poke out precariously .

Other considerations

• You can prevent the problem of buying a stunted Discus by looking at the face of the Discus. In a well proportioned fish, taking the line/bar that passes through the eye, there should be, by my standards, a minimum of 2.5 and preferably 3 eye widths between the eye and the top of the head directly above the eye. Stunted Discus have eyes that are not proportional to their faces. It's eyes are just too big for it's body size and age.

After listing so many points, I guess you are loaded with information. Yeah, this is about what you should be thinking about when you are selecting a Discus. After time goes by, it would come to you automatically. So don't worry too much. Ask the shop owner for advice, but make sure he/she is an experience Discus breeder or owner. Otherwise, you maybe misinformed.

Hope that you won't regret buying any Discus after reading through this article.

Regards,
Sam Chng