These include Red Diamonds, Golden Sunrise, White Dragons, Red Pandas, etc. Very recently, crossing wild caught Red Spotted Greens to more colorful commercial types have produced the magnificent Leopard discus. One of these spectacular Leopard types just won Best of Show at the 2000 Duisburg Discus Competition in October. The Asians have become successful by taking advantage of their environment. In Malaysia, for example, the weather allows discus to be grown outdoors in concrete tanks.
Live food is also readily available.
Thus, a single generation for an Asian breeder can be as short as 10 months. Today, all the major hatcheries source their breeding material from Asia. Most Asian breeders, in turn, source their breeding material from Malaysia. Unlike the older Turquoise and Cobalt types, the newer strains do not breed true at first. The early Blue Diamond discus produced a proliferation of blue types - of which only a percentage were true Blue Diamonds.