The turquoise discus is a blue strain of the domestic discus and a peaceful fish for a tall, warm tank. Keeping it well takes experience.
Did you know
The turquoise discus is the line most named domestic discus strains trace back through. The pigeon blood line, which sits behind most modern solid colors, came from a striped turquoise male crossed to a red turquoise female.
Caring for the turquoise discus
Give a group of turquoise discus a tall tank of at least 65 gal (245 L), furnished with driftwood. Keep the flow gentle and the water very clean, since these fish are demanding about water quality.
Hold the temperature at 79 to 90°F (26 to 32°C) and the pH at 6.0 to 7.0, in soft water. Stable conditions and steady heat matter more than anything else. Feed quality flake, pellet and frozen foods, often more than once a day.
Keep six or more, since lone fish get bullied and stressed. Turquoise discus are peaceful and safe in a community tank. Like other cichlids, they are devoted parents. For the first days of life, the fry feed on a mucus the parents secrete on their flanks.
Coverage is graded by eye, and solid fish cost more than striped ones. Color fills in slowly, so a small juvenile shows little of the adult.
Good to know
The blue of the turquoise discus is structural rather than a blue pigment. Iridophores, the reflective pigment cells, throw back blue-green light over a red-brown ground. Shops sell it as blue turquoise, red turquoise, cobalt or brilliant turquoise. The name depends on how heavy the striation is and how much red shows through. Striation coverage behaves like a quantitative trait rather than a single gene, so a turquoise pair does not give a uniform batch. Breeders select every generation for wider, straighter lines, and coverage drifts back toward striping once selection stops.
In the wild
The turquoise discus is a captive line, not a wild population. Wild discus carrying unusually heavy blue striation were selected over generations until the lines covered the whole body. American breeders drove the blue work, with Jack Wattley's turquoise appearing around 1970. German breeders, including Eduard Schmidt-Focke, developed the red turquoise. No wild discus looks like a modern turquoise.
Weekly picks
Tank mates
The turquoise discus is a peaceful, shoaling species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.
5.9 in (15 cm)65 gal (245 L)81–88°F (27–31°C)
7.1 in (18 cm)75 gal (284 L)82–88°F (28–31°C)
5.9 in (15 cm)79 gal (300 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
5.9 in (15 cm)37 gal (140 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
6.3 in (16 cm)26 gal (100 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
4.7 in (12 cm)53 gal (200 L)68–86°F (20–30°C)