Project Description

Snake Skin Discus

Snake Skin is one of the most beautiful, most expensive, most sensitive and most difficult strains of discus to keep for amateur hobbyists. This gorgeous discus has a bright blue body them which is covered with irregular tiny red spots and you’ll see some blue stripes on the face and some red stripes on their fins. At first snake skin were having 14 stress bars but today you might see them with 9stress bars as well.
  • QUICK LOOK:
  • Recommended for: experts
  • Price Range:
  • Growth Speed:
  • Strength:
  • Family Group: Hybrid from (tefe discus)
  • Design: patterned
  • Best Food: beef heart and mixed foods
  • Water Condition: TDSless than 300, PH: 6.5 – 7.5

Care and Breeding Information

General care for Snake Skin

Snake Skin is a gorgeous and a rewarding strain of discus but it takes skills and experience to keep them healthy and growing which we don’t recommend it for the beginners unless they are ready to learn and accept the challenges. This sensitive strain immediately shows any discomfort by darkening the color of their skin and this expensive discus is a slow-growing strain, so it takes a  lot of professionalism and effort to deliver a nice sized beautiful snakeskin discus fish.
Best food:
Foods with a higher amount of krill, paprika or such foods can intensify the red dots and stripes and some other foods high in spirulina are the best for the blue color of the snake skin and so the mixed food and beef heart is a must for this strain however you can also feed them with some produced foods like sera and discusfood granule or pellets. Like most other strains It’s best to use our appropriate discus feeding plan for Snake skin as it helps you not only to have a growing and healthier discus but also a cleaner tank as well. to learn more about what are the best foods for discus click here!
Appropriate water and tank condition:
Conditioning water is always an important factor for every fish and it seems to be even more important when it comes to Discus. Almost every discus will do just fine with waters TDS of 250-300 or less, and the water temperature of 29.5 -30.5 °C in order to showcase their the best coloration, expanded fins, eating habits and in general to show you how a happy discus look like and these factors seem to work pretty well for snake skin discus as well. to learn more about how to maintain well-conditioned water for discus click here.
The best tank condition for Snake Skin can be tanks with bright background color and better not to use sands or gravels as their skin turns into a darker color. You can use woods and plants if you are not a fan of bare bottom tanks but it’s better to avoid high-density planting as it makes it difficult to clean the tank up to its cleanest. You can always use pots or plant on woods if you love having plants but a clean tank at the same time to learn more about the best tank conditions for discus click here.
A healthy Snake skin discus should look like:
I can’t stress it enough, Buying healthy discus and from a reliable source is like the MOST IMPORTANT step of every discus lover which will save you a lot of headache and money. There are common signs of a healthy and quality discus but talking about snake skin, First, you’ll need to pay attention to their skin, as their skin is a reflection of their health. Less pigmentation on the body, open fins, and the gills need to look normal and healthy. looking at their poop tells a lot, No white poop! the size of their eyes should be medium, not too big and not very small! Besides, the dorsal fin and anal fin needs to look symmetrical.  Click here to learn more about how to buy a quality discus!
Snake skin Discus is often confused with:
Leopard discus, mosaic leopard, eruption discus.

General Breeding information

Snake Skin is one of the main roles in the introduction of many other beautiful discus strains. snake skin is from Tefe discus genetically and the spots on their skin are the result of that. it was bred in Thailand first and was introduced to the public in 1992-1993. The first snake skins had 14 stress bars but now you can find them with 9 stress bars as well. this strain has been so expensive and one was sold for USD 10.000 in 1994! many of the famous and popular strains of discus were produced using snake skin, such as leopard snake, leopard snake skin, eruption, golden snake, golden snake skin, etc. Breeding Marlboro Red is not easy because they are so sensitive and their growth speed is too slow in case you ever wanted to know and their babies will show up their real coloration almost when they get over 2 inches in size as they are not considered in the solid group.
Pairs Preparations For Breeding Discus
If you want quality eggs, you’ll need a healthy pair. So one thing I found vital in successful breeding is to prepare the pair for breeding at least 15 days before laying the eggs you are planning to work on. using Chloramine-T on Flubendazole every 5 days and for 3 cycles. click on here to learn how to use chloramine-T or Flubendazole!
Water Condition for Breeding Snake Skin
The water you put in the breeding tank first is usually the water of the bigger tank where your pair fell in love! Remember, your matured discus could be stronger in some various water conditions but that might not be the case for their eggs. If you want a high rate of discus eggs hatching, apart from using methylene blue you’ll need soft water, TDS from 30 to 70 is fine and my favorite number is 50. You just take care of this number and the rest of the parameters will simply adjust to it’s best (Such as the PH and etc).
Tank and filtration system for Breeding Discus
To explain it briefly and based on my experience, I think The best size for a breeding tank is 50cm * 50cm * 50cm Which ends up holding 125 Liters of water. It is best to choose a similar size for the Lenght, width, and height of the breeding tank. but none of them should be less than 40 cm while holding 125 Liters of water.
Then for filtration set up, you’ll need a simple, and easy to use a sponge filter.  We’ll want to remove the sponge filter when the eggs are hatched and to replace it back after the fry are better swimmers. read more here!
Next is the heater, for such tank, you’ll need a 150W or 200W to maintain a temperature of 28°C – 28.5°C. Here is a trick I use all the time, as 30% to 50% water change is recommended daily and it helps to soften the water. I purposely choose to add enough water of 25°C until I can decrease the tank temperature by 1°C or 1.5°C suddenly, and the heater works to bring it back to the beginning temperature of 28°C or 28.5°C. This happens to lead the pairs into temptation and desire for sex.
lastly, we’ll need to have a breeding cone or anything else like ceramics, Pvc pipes to provide a surface for laying the eggs although they might still decide to lay their eggs anywhere else they like!
Snake Skin Discus pairs up well with:
Snow white, golden and snake skin, etc.

Other types of Discus you can learn about: