Hi again !! This page gives you a little information about discus. Enjoy yourself and feel free to learn about them. If you like to give me some comments about discus or about this page, just do it! Send me your e-mail and I'll be happy to read them. Discus are fresh-water fish. They are called discus because of their disc-shape. There are two discus species, each with subspecies, that are currently recognized. Those are Symphysodon aequifasciata (the common discus) and Symphysodon discus (the Heckel or red discus). Both species are found in the Amazon River system, mainly in Brazil but also in Peru and Colombia.   Today, discus are called as "the king of aquarium fish". Why discus are so popular? There are some reasons making them so popular.   First of all, they are really regal and splendid in their coloration.

Here are some pictures of them.

The most interesting reason is they are so difficult to breed. This becomes a challenge for each discus fanatic to be able to breed them. Determining the sex of discus is a problem that cannot be solved easily as discus have no clear external sexual characters. The possibility to determine their sex is only during the actual spawning process. Discus need approximately
one year to become fully adults and they will form pairs by themselves. They will pair naturally. Do not try to change the mates of mated pairs. It may not work. If you are lucky you can do this. Offering a new male to an adult female may lead to trouble. The forced pair will not spawn. Another problem is some discus are notorious egg-eaters, so such fish cannot be used for breeding. Besides that, the great care should be given during the spawning process.
 
Oh man! This is the most interesting part for me when I was caring for the discus and becomes my obsession to be able to breed them one day.

Here are some pictures of the spawning process.