Growth hormones?

[tau]

I notice that the word growth hormones keep coming up on this site. Can someone explain what growth hormones are? Are they in most dry foods?
How do you get growth hormones? ???

[barron]

Hi

People here do not use any.

The ones that do sell bad Discus, They have crap make it look good take our money and laugh.

Most use them to enhance color and 30 days or so later the nice fish you paid money for turn white or lighter color.

And growth hormones will make the fish shoot blanks.

Your Koi breeders us it like mad.

The best way to make your Discus grow is water changes, food lots of it, clean tank, no stress, do no not over-stock and keep your discus near the same size as one another and tank on the warm side 86 degrees.

Barron 8)

[Carol_Roberts]

Actually I don't think it's growth hormones, but sex homones that some less than honest breeders are purported to use. Discus are allegedly fed these hormones at a young age so they will show their adult color/pattern, making them more attractive to potential buyers.

Baby discus are usually drab. In the wild predators have a harder time finding mud colored discus. Hormones are an expensive shortcut to colorful discus.

Do not confuse hormones with color feeding. Almost everyone color feeds their discus whether they know it or not. Most all flakes and pellets contain color ingredients. And you can safely buy others (like axastanthin) to add even more red to your discus.

[tau]

Thanks for the reply guys