Contest/ Discus Challenge 09

[dpt8]

Hi Folks, I know this is more of a contest than an experiment but it is so interesting to see the results after the contest ends. I thought it would be fun and interesting to project some outcomes at the beginning of the contest and compare the end results. I know people probably have ideas of what might happen so I thought I would express my opinion. I'm basing my opinions from raising albino and mutations of wood ducks, raising leucistic phase black swans ( check out my websight http://angelfire.com/mb/bantampond ) and reading Al's observations of his alenquers, some of which were albino siblings, plus my own albino discus observations of my albinos.

First of all, I want to commend Forrest and Kenny for giving/donating such world class quality discus. I know they are in the best health and have a great lineage of breeding. Cutting edge varieties too. ( Kenny, I haven't forgotten you and the help you gave me.)

I feel albinos and mutations have a different kind of strength and quality than their natural colored and intermediate ( split) counterparts.

Here are my guesses: I don't know if these fish are all siblings or a combination of a couple different pairs. Could you guys let us know just out of curiosity sake :9)

1.) I think that sibling don't all grow out the same and predict a variety of sizes at the end.
2.) I think as albinos, they will grow out very nicely and we'll all wish we had some, but I feel they are going to grow out at a slower rate than their intermediate siblings ( If there were some.)
3). I feel albinos are slower to mature and pair up. Hope some peopleend up breeding these guys after time.
4.) Coloration may and will differ depending on what the contest people feed them.

I am very interested in Chad Hughes outcome. He says he is going to do weekly or bi-weekly waterchanges and raise his discus in a 110. Kirk was going to do waterchanges every other day but I think he said he was going to do everyday after he thought of it. Would be interesting if there was another group of discus with every other day waterchanges.

Good luck to all. Thank you to Kenny, Forrest and Al !! Does anyone else have any predictions. Hey I could be "all wet" hehe but I thought this would be fun !! David T

[DiscusOnly]

1.) I think that sibling don't all grow out the same and predict a variety of sizes at the end.
2.) I think as albinos, they will grow out very nicely and we'll all wish we had some, but I feel they are going to grow out at a slower rate than their intermediate siblings ( If there were some.)
3). I feel albinos are slower to mature and pair up. Hope some peopleend up breeding these guys after time.
4.) Coloration may and will differ depending on what the contest people feed them.

Wow.. I could not agree more and this is based on my personal experience. Not sure about maturing but I can't get mine to pair. They are laying eggs but not pairing at all. I have mine for almost 1 year now and the point above are exactly what my experience have been.

[Armandi_Fishcarer]

David, I couldn't agree with you more. It would be great to have an observational point in the report the contestants make.

Regards
Ahmed ;)

[brewmaster15]

Interesting Thoughts David,

I have one observation on Albino Growth... They may be slower than Sibling Non-albinos as I did see that here......but I want to qualify that and to not say necessarily that albinos are slow to mature compared to non-albinos in general.. I base this on what we know about other non-albino strains...



Blue Diamond males ..notoriously slower to mature
White Butterflies....Cary Strong has noted that it may take up to 2.5 years for Males to mature
Wilds...commonly thought to be sexually mature after a few years...heckels maybe be very slow to mature(years-speculation)

When we see discus being sexually mature at 8 months -1 year....I often wonder if its not so much the other strains being slow to mature...but more like its a case when those "younger" discus strains breed sooner as a result of things like Genetic Selection by breeders( picking the fastest biggest growers in the group to work with), and possible environmental conditions and interactions like foods fed, water parameters etc. That we really don't understand yet.

Too often we look at slow growth in our discus as a negative... questions always arise... "how big should my discus be at 3 months, 6 months, 9 month... is it runted?" etc etc Personally I'd like to see more emphasis on shape...eye to body ratios, and health ...than how "big" or "fast" they grow..

These are, of course, my thoughts and speculations!

-al

[dpt8]

Al, Interesting re: ages when certain varieties of discus breed. Very interesting. I think it takes two years or so for a discus to actually obtain full size.. Right ?? They do grow a little more and fill out after we think they have reached maximum size. I see it in my young adults all the time.