How fast discus grows?

[jeddah]

Hi guys! nice to join the forum, this is my first time actually.

By the way, I am really new to discus and I think I am going to love this fish from the day I got some.

Last week I got my very first discus, 3 of them, 2 inches in lenght, I don't even know what kind of discus are they but their colors are nice.

I'm very excited to see them get to full size to see the actual color.

Can anybody tell me how fast discus grows?
How old are my 2-inch discus?
What is the biggest size they can reach?

By the way my tank is around 25 Gal.
Temp=29-30C
I don't know the PH (no tester around)
Single bio filter
With gravel and plants
....is my setup ok for discus?

Let me hear from you guys!
Many Thanks

Jovel

[Ardan]

HI,
If discus are well cared for, good food, good wc's, big enough tank and not crowded, then they can grow 1 inch/month for the first couple months and then they usually slow down growing a bit, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch /month.
Full grown I have heard 9 inches, maybe a bit more. Mine are about 6 inches.

hth

[jeddah]

many thanks hth

[angel12]

Good Question But at what point/age do they stop growing ... is there a General rule of thumb for example at say 18 months they would be approx 5" ? Is it true that they continue to grow until about the 2-21/2 Year point

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Jovel and Welcome to Simply Discus :wave:

You are starting out just like I did. . . ;) Your new little discus may not grow very big at all in your planted, graveled tank. My first two survivors grew to be about 3 inches and 4 inches after 2 years.

Juvenile discus grow best in bare tanks with daily water changes of the same temperature and pH and lots of good food.

Maybe you will be lucky and have calm, happy little discus that play together nicely. More likely one will turn into Atilla the Hun, hog all the food and force the other two discus to hide in the corner all day (when he isn't chasing and nipping at them for fun)

Juvenile discus do best in groups of 6 or more. They feel more secure in groups and one discus doesn't get picked on all the time.

Your 2 inch discus may be 3 months old if they just came in . . . or may be 6 months old if they have set at the store for a while . . . .

You will start to see color at about 4 inches depending on variety.

Read through this site - there is tons of information here and pictures too!

What colors are your new discus - maybe we can help you guess the type?

[jeddah]

Hi Carol, Many thanks for your good advice.

Sad to know discus won't grow well in graveled and planted tank, I wonder how my tank will look like without them.

What's the main reason? is it beacuse of space consumed by the gravel & plant? or something else?

The 3 of them is diff from each other. One is with brown snake like or leopard like skin (snake or leopard...i'm confused what's the difference?) with about 8 black vertical stripe in its body(stripes are sometimes seem to disappear)

The second is pure tangerine with black along side the fins.
The 3rd one is not very appealing coz it looks like an ordinary ciclid with light blue coloration. its body is somehow oblong in shape.

I was told they came from thailand. What could be their breed?

Again many thanks and awaiting reply.

Jovel

[Carol_Roberts]

I bet you have a pigeon blood (tangerine with black fins), A leopard (8 vertical bars - will be red and blue) and a blue diamond (solid blue - no vertical bars)

Discus need lots of good, meaty foods and very clean water to grow. Think of your grow out tank as a glass feeding trough. You should feed these young discus 4 - 6 times per day. I reccommend a prefilter sponge on the intake tube of your filter to keep the small uneaten bits for food (and feces) out of the filter box. Vacuum the tank daily and rinse the prefilter. Most of us here do daily water changes of 30 - 50 % with water that is the same temperature and pH as the water in the discus tank.

Once they have stopped growing you can get by with less frequent water changes and you can put them in a planted display tank.

[jeddah]

Wow! you're an expert Carol.

Many Thanks
Jovel

[barron]

Hi

Most of mine grew about 1' this past 6 weeks.

Water changes. 40% a day, lots of food, clean up after each meal I feed 3 or 4 times a day.

I think high temp may also help 86-88 rather then 84-86

Would have done better, however one or two had tape worms and one hex. ::) :D And I meant inch! ;)