Pointy Discus

[candyl70]

Ok, so,

I was wondering if my new discus (the albino) is pointy, will it stay that way?
By pointy i mean his nose comes to a point, not nice and round. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_4_82.gif Is it genetics or environmental? They aren't runted as far as i can tell, they have nice small eyes. I am hoping that it is environmental as they are still small and that lots of water changes and a good diet will help them round out. What do you guys think?? Please say that they will be nice and round!! lol... all comments are welcome!

Candy

[Tony_S]

without seeing a picture of the fish itself....but assuming they are similar or the same quality as the two Marie posted in the photo gallery....
No...they will never be show quality fish. They can be helped along some with good care on your part, but wont ever be "nice and round".
Sorry if thats not what you wanted to hear.....glad you didnt have to pay for them.

JMO....JME

Tony

[goheel]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//attachment.php?attachmentid=10168&stc=1&d=1133976405

Is it me or the ones on the far left are really pointy? Are those the ones you're talking about?

[Kindredspirit]

Hey C~ (lol)


They are pointy....admit it...we have football shaped discus!! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_7_1.gifI will never have a really really round one or really really brightly colored one! How to deal?? lol! .......I was noticing that today too on one of the ones Marc gave us, how oblong he looked... is that a word?


But, remember Cliff said that if we give them lots of growing space they will grown really round.....


Hell, yours should pancake up, woman, since they are in your 55gal!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_13_5.gif


Time Will Tell, yes? As Time Tells All~


M~

[candyl70]

Go,
that is them, but he looks alittle distorted in that pic... i'll try and get a better one.



C~

[candyl70]

LOL.. talking to ya now woman!!

Yes, they are footballs I am afraid. But i love them none the less. One has a funny little bump nose... i'll get a pic up tonight.

See ya later C!!


C!

[candyl70]

Ok,
here are 2 new pics ... they are getting used to me and don't hide the second they see me come!!

[candyl70]

2 ...

[Kindredspirit]

You take such great pictures! I like your background too! I want it.

Can i have it? and the book? Will you gimme all of it? http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_31_7.gif lol!!



Hey, Candy, the discus look good tho, dontcha think? I do! Perhaps we can bring them out and mold them, every once in a while~


Marie~

ps~ Hey, I am working here thru Internet Explorer, cuz I dont want to be seen on AOL, right now, and the Smileys work so much better....smoother, quicker too! Strange.....

[candyl70]

Marie,

lol... you can't have my background, but i'll help ya make one! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_15_6.gif Barb gave me the idea and even told me how she does it, i just improvised a tinsy bit cuz i couldn't find the wallpaper!

Take em out and push on their noses a bit?? Sounds like a plan!
Can ya see a bit of the orange on the one?


C!

[cobaltblue]

Come on Marie, get out that baby blue paint...forget the background....lol

ps...my pigeon blood that was quite badly peppered with the new light blue paint has pretty much lost all his\her peppering. Without trying to sound to sappy, it is the ugly duckling becoming the beautiful elegant swan. I wish i had a before\after shot i could post. Then again, i cant post pics anyway, i havnt figured out how to get them small enough yet.:(
\Cheers

[Tony_S]

After looking at these pictures, I have to admit....they look better than I originally thought they did. The eye's dont look quite as large as they do in Maries pictures. But they still have poor shape IMO.
"B" grade at best.

Tony

PS.

Not trying to discourage either of you....You like em, and thats all that really matters! Just trying to give an honest opinion on quality....something thats become a rarity on simply discus.

[jim_shedden]

Tony:
Where you bin?

Jim

[Kindredspirit]

After looking at these pictures, I have to admit....they look better than I originally thought they did. The eye's dont look quite as large as they do in Maries pictures. But they still have poor shape IMO.
"B" grade at best.

Tony

PS.

Not trying to discourage either of you....You like em, and thats all that really matters! Just trying to give an honest opinion on quality....something thats become a rarity on simply discus.


Hey Tony~


Thanks for you opinion and I agree...I do not know what what the real experienced look for in young discus, or older ones...And everyone is more experienced than me in this...but, I always look at the shape...and I love really really round ones, and tiny little puckering lips! Then I look for color... I am not discouraged, and I am sure Candy isnt either...Cliff did say that they round up really nice if they are grown out in a large space, the bigger the tank the more round...Whatcha think about that? From the pictures of our four footballs, lol, do you think the shape will change or stay the same? Or worsen? ( is that even a word?)


Thanks, Tony!


Marie~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/12/12_7_23.gif

[candyl70]

Thanks for your opinion Tony, I appreciate that you are being honest. And I agree too, they are little footballs.... lol. but they were a gift for Marie and I, so I love them even if they stay pointy. I was just wondering when they are babies can you tell what their shape will be?

Do they start off looking round or do they all have a tiny pointy nose? Does anyone have a pic of what a little round one looks like?




Candy

[DarkDiscus]

Candy,

I have seen some footballish discus shape up pretty well with good care - good food, water and time.

They may never be 100% round, but can come pretty close. So just keep up the good work and see where they go!

John

[candyl70]

Thanks for the encouragement John!
They are sure little piggies, they eat just about anything! They are too funny, i have never seen discus eat the way they do, they suck in trying to get the food, instead of blowing on it and catching it. They are amusing little guys!


C~

[tlum]

Hi Candy,

You never know their full potential by just looking at their small body size and shape now. I don't know your water paramenter, but it will help if you raise them in water that are more towards the hard side, such as RO waste water. It will also be helpful if you add some calcium into your beef heart or using mysis as one of their daily food as the shell of mysis should also be a good source of calcium.

Doing more water change and enjoy your fish is more important than focusing on their shape. Afterall, they are your pets.

Terry

[candyl70]

Thanks Terry!
I have been using my tap water (aged in storage), Cliff said that it was better for babies that RO and my tap is 8.3 . Where do you get the calcium to add to the beefheart?

I was feeding mysis shrimp, but the package that we bought melted and then was frozen again, and i don't want to feed them that as bacteria is probably in the food now.

Is mysis a good source of roughage?

Candy

[tlum]

8.3.... I suppose you are talking about ph? If you are raising small fish, you really don't need to worry water hardness and ph. I used my RO waste water for my small discus tank (ppm about 280 and ph above 8). My fish eat like pigs and most has nice body size and round shape. I did start with very good genetic breeding stock.

I added 4 600mg calcium pills into each pound of 93% lean ground beef (I don't use beef heart anymore, too much work. I can prepare 4 pound of ground beef in half an hour. But it will take a couple of hours if I use beef heart). I use a hammer to make them into powder and mix them with my ground beef. I also add a few fish oil and adult multi-vitamines into it. Fish needs both amino acid to build body and fatty acid to supply energy. Protein is a less efficient source of energy than fat. Fish also need to use more energy to burn protein to produce energy than burning fat to produce energe. However, saturated fat from warm blooded animal is not good for discus. They need unsaturated fat. So, I use fish oil which has a high concentration of unsaturated fatty accid (omega 3 and 6).

Mysis is also a very good source of unsaturated fatty acid. Shell of mysis and other shell fish is also a good red pigment source and calcium. However I don't think they are a good source of roughage. Roughage is cellulose from plant. I mixed spiralin flak into my ground beef to add vitamin and roughage.

Hope this help.

Terry

[candyl70]

Thanks Terry, that was very helpful. I didn't know spiralina was roughage, i thought it was a kind of shrimp... lol. I never checked or bought it before.

Anyhow my fish are doing great and that is what is most important. Thanks for the info. I thnk i will try the beefheart receipes here and try the ground beef too.


Candy

[Kenny's Discus]

Quote:

"Do they start off looking round or do they all have a tiny pointy nose? Does anyone have a pic of what a little round one looks like?"

Here you go Candy (enjoy):

A very "football" shape juvenile. In fact he's a "runt".

[Kenny's Discus]

A very "circle" shape juvenile.

[Kenny's Discus]

A super "circle" adult. (sry for the extreme comparison) :-)

[traco]

Call them Lenny and Squiggy?:p

Just a quick highjack to Terry, sorry Candy:( What is your hamburger recipe version of the beefheart? I had also read that turkey was a good one to use also?

[tlum]

Kenny, that is a cull. I personally will not allow them to grow to that size as it is too painful to cull a fish at that size regardless of the shape.

Hi Barb,

I just use 93% lean ground beef to replace beef heart. I think 97% will be better but much more expensive. I can buy 93% lean groundbeef at about $2.5 per pound when it is on sale. Beef heart costs me about $2 per pound and I need to throw away about 1/3 of it when cleaning.

Most people add shrimp into their beef heart mix. In Asian, I think they are doing 50% shrimp or even more. I can buy shrimp at about $4 per pound, but I will need to remove the shell. I can buy PE mysis at whole sale price which is not that much higher than shrimp. So, use mysis, instead of shrimp. Since I feed my fish PE mysis daily, I figure out that I don't need to mix any shrimp into my ground beef.

HTH and Candy, sorry for highjacking your post.

Terry

[Kenny's Discus]

I know Terry but the thing is sometimes when you several tanks all packed with frys you will miss some of these runts. If only 1/2 tank ok but more will be more difficult. I want you to know that it was not my intention to grow him/her out to be that size.

Kenny

[Terrybo]

Candy - I have a marlboro red that was not very round as a juvenile, but had good coloring, so I kept it. First I'll posta picture of the fish as a teen.

Terry

[Terrybo]

Now here is the same fish 6 months later. Definately not round, but I like the size and color. Not a show quality fish, but looks good in the aquarium.

Terry

[Kindredspirit]

Okay...since Candy is not in town, she won't mind a lil hi-jacking!and...since I said we have football discus....lol!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/7/7_4_18.gif


If I may act blonde here a moment....When we cull we are putting fish to sleep, so to speak. But you guys can actually, I mean, people actually raise culls? Why would they do that? Only to cull them? And I have read on many ocassion, that you guys look at a discus and 'say that is a cull', like Terry just did... that must take a very well trained eye, yes?

and....in closing, Terry, I thought this statement made by you was pretty cool, Sir. For real tho, Terry....That shows your true character and for a guy ( you are a man arent you?) well, that is double cool....

'I personally will not allow them to grow to that size as it is too painful to cull a fish at that size regardless of the shape.'



Thanks, woman for letting me pop in~


Marie~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_105.gif