The discus is a social animal. They live in large groups in their native waters, and have a very advanced social behavior, they are one of the few real schooling cichlids. Remember to keep this in mind starting with discus yourself, always purchase a group of animals. They need the social interaction to develop their characterful behavior to it's fullest.

At this time it is rather hard to find the original color variants in pet stores, only the Heckel is sometimes imported. Most of the discus you encounter today are captive bred color variants. At this time the list of described color variants is nearly endless, and personally I thing that's not only a good thing. Some of the discus color variants have lost their stripes and therefore their natural ability to communicate in the school and currently some Asian breeders are working on a discus variant in the shape of a boomerang. But as always these new variants are finding their way to the aquarium hobbyist quickly for exceptional high prices and this will stimulate the breeders to try to find a new one. One of the advantages of the captive bred discus is that they are now much easier, not easy, to maintain as the imported ones. The are much more tolerant concerning water conditions.