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plymbloke
04-14-2008, 04:16 PM
Hello everyone! As well as tryign to breed cardinal tetras, ive gone and got a group of discus for my 150 litre tank - 2 red turq and 2 browns. This si a photo of my biggest RT and the biggest brown, hope you like them! the setup is sand, bogwood and one anubias plant and thats it, with a shoal of black neons for a dither fish and a group of corys. any idea what sex they are? sorry about the photo quality and angle!

AADiscus
04-14-2008, 07:31 PM
The angle of them in the picture is hard to tell the sex. If I had to guess going off this pic then......male is left and female is right. Hard to tell though. Could be two females though.

edmoran77
04-14-2008, 11:34 PM
Nice colors on those fish whatever the sex. Keep up the good work.:)

plymbloke
04-15-2008, 04:45 AM
thanks guys, I'll try and get a good side on view of them both. they are great, all i have to do is turn my head towards the tank and those two come right up to the front!

steve.ryall
04-15-2008, 07:13 AM
Hi Plym,
Looks like 2 RT's to me, who said one was a brown? where did you get them?

Steve

plymbloke
04-15-2008, 10:20 AM
Hi Steve, i got them from Chris Ingham of Plymouth Discus and Tropical Fish magazine, ive taken a couple more photos to help with ID, again sorry about the pic quality - in the second there is even a cameo appearance of a male guppy i have in the tank for a couple of days lol:

Armandi_Fishcarer
04-16-2008, 12:52 AM
Hi plym

Awesome fish pics & quality of fish :D

Hope all goes well for you with them

Regards Armandi ;)

MSD
04-16-2008, 08:08 AM
They are young fish with nice color and nice high fins. Feed well and do lots of water changes and see how much more amazing they will become. Take care of them right and nature will take its course with them, until then just enjoy their great beauty.

plymbloke
04-16-2008, 02:31 PM
Thanks guys - I cant wait to get a bigger tank to show them off in, the dream is a 10foot tank, 3ft deep with a background from Back To Nature http://www.backtonature.se/index.html background in it, sand and with plenty of dead leaves and half a tree lol: basically get a full on amazon biotope going there lol i htink my discus would love it! although by then hopefully i will have wilds - Heckles are the target. 6 in that tank should look good with a shoal of cardinals!!

AADiscus
04-16-2008, 08:47 PM
I am gonna be honest with you but please don't take it personal. They are both runted. Based off the last set of pics. BUT.. if you were to breed them you can have some really nice fry. IMO They have nice color and patterns. Sometimes a breeder will keep some fish for just breeding purposes ONLY! No showing, pics, etc. It is strictly to make better quality fish. This is going off my experience though.

plymbloke
04-17-2008, 05:44 AM
ok thanks, I presume by 'runted' you mean that they are unduly small? what sort of size should they be at? Although as I dont know their age I guess this is impossible to say. what sort of growth rate do they have - i feed twice a day with granuals, live food and frozen food (bloodworms and brineshrimp).

Thanks agai nfor your replies everyone :)

chris

Kindredspirit
04-17-2008, 07:31 AM
Hey Chris! Usually the discus are stunted/runted, when the eyes are bigger than the bodies...:( Meaning, the eyes grew, but the little bodies did not ~ like yours.

But ~

They appear healthy and happy, plus you seem to love them! You really should invest in four more, Chris ~ two Discus is never a good thing, as they are schooling fish:)

QT though ~ don't forget!

Elite Aquaria
04-17-2008, 07:54 AM
Chris,

I am assuming that you meant that you give them 2 dry feedings plus the frozen and live feedings...if 2 feedings are the total amount you are feeding you will need to increase that to around 5-6 feedings if you want them to grow. Discus can grow to 2.5-3" in about 3 months...Then the growth rate starts to slow down a little from 3-4.5"....then very slow from 4.5-6.5". I would guesstimate that your fish are around 2.3-3" total length (nose to tip of tail). Judging from the eye size and color of your 2.5-3" fish, I would guesstimate that they are around 5-6 months old...So they have a lot of catching up to do...I am sure with some TLC you should be able to get them up to 4.5-5" range...good luck

plymbloke
04-17-2008, 04:17 PM
Alas i work all day so i cant feed them for the main part of the day, but i can get the feedings up to three times probably, once in the morning and twice in the evening - how does that sound? as for numbers and size i have four at present, two are about 3 inches nose to tail but the ones in those photos are 4inches long. they all seem happy enough and dont shy away as they are- but obviously i want them to be as healthy as they can be though.

thanks for all the advice guys!

digthemlows
04-18-2008, 09:10 AM
I'd say two in the evening is good. I feed early morning, then at lunch I come home to get the kids from school and feed, then right when I get home, and then right before bed...........I'm sure they'd eat more but I can't afford it:) I have 10 and 12 year old kids!!! :D

kaceyo
04-18-2008, 05:47 PM
Hi Plymbloke,
You can get an automatic feeder to dole out some TetraBits or something during the day and then feed 3 large helpings of meaty frozen foods like Beefheart and Frozen Bloodworms in the AM and eve's. That would make a big difference. Don't worry too much about the size, just enjoy them as they are very attractive fish and seem healthy. As time goes by you'll develope an eye for what looks right for discus.

Kacey