My discus are one year old, the story of the dirty dozen so far.

My fish are now one year old, I got them when they were 3 months old and about 2" long directly from an amateur breeder in Bologna (Italy). He got his breeding pair of red melons from SG, One of the top Italian professional breeders. Since then I have done my best as a novice discus- keeper to look after them. I have them in a 100 gal BB tank and every day change 2/3 of the water (TDS 100 ppm, KH3, pH 7.5, T 28C), syphon the bottom and wipe the 5 panes of glass. I feed them every 3 hours from 6 am to 9 pm (then WC) mostly grated (from frozen) Alaska wild salmon, I used to alternate it with mussels but stopped that (thought it had an adverse effect).
Today I fished out one of the 5 bigger ones ( not necessarily the biggest but thereabouts), he measures15 cm total length and weighs 180 grams. One of the two smallest is 11 cm long and weighs 68 grams. The other fish appear to be somewhere in between these two extremes. Worth mentioning that one who used to be the joint smallest about 4 months ago (and unmistakable as he is the only one with a touch of deviation of the caudal vertebrae) is now one of the biggest. The one that was as small as him has now caught up with what was the third smallest and they both seem to be growing steadily. The smaller ones do not appear visibly stunted, they are as round in shape and as chubby as the biggest ones (so no football shapes or pinched faces) - as they say small but perfectly formed! For what it is worth I think this difference in growth rate is due mainly to feeding habits, the smaller ones seem to prefer (and not under duress) to eat the smaller fragments of food that float mid-water while the ones that go for the bigger bits that sink to the bottom are the ones that have grown most. With the benefit of hindsight what would I have done different? Surely avoid the mussels and increase the water oxygenation sooner, other than that I don't know.
I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, I was anxious keeping the fish out of water and Management (wife) even more, I think she would have slapped me if I dared keep the fish out a second longer.
I would appreciate the feedback from the more experienced discus keepers of this forum and hope that what I have done, good and bad, may be of help to others thinking of starting with these mesmerising fish

Nice story and thanks for sharing. Those are some Brutus bad boys you got there. Any in tank photo's?

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Originally Posted by Gabriel13

Nice story and thanks for sharing. Those are some Brutus bad boys you got there. Any in tank photo's?

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Here is a video from one month ago
https://youtu.be/bXEtfgRp91Q
I have posted regularly from the start about this first attempt of mine to grow out juvies on this thread
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...My-Dirty-Dozen

I would say you have done an excellent job with growing them out Paul :)
Pat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXEt...ature=youtu.be

great job, nice fish mate! Grated wild salmon...expensive taste, LOL. Caio!

Great job on raising your babies!

Thanks for the kind words, good to know I did not screw up too bad! I am obviously pleased with the growth of the bigger ones and not disappointed by the smaller ones, they still have time to catch up although it was a bit of a surprise to see that the ones lagging behind do not "look stunted", just a smaller version of their bigger siblings.

Happy Birthday Fishies! I enjoyed this thread from watching them grow to food choices to wave maker. Interesting and informative read. Thanks for sharing. I like your other tanks too.
Patty

Thanks to all, I am sure I would have had a lot more bumps on this road without this forum. I think it is a useful thing to document regularly with the progress of a discus tank warts and all, not just occasionally to say "look how nice my new fish" or "help I have an emergency". Nothing wrong with that per se, just that it gives only a partial view of what happens keeping discus. My lot are by far the tank that is more hands on. Besides the other tanks in the video I am setting up another small planted tank for some Norman's lampeye (Poropanchax normanni) , shipping tomorrow together with some rainbow shiners for one of the tub ponds, another tub pond holds 16 Shubunkin/Sarasa/Canaries goldfish. I also have another QT tank holding some Aphanius mento "Kirkgoz" recently arrived from Malta after 11 days in the post - AND 7OUT OF 8 GOT HERE ALIVE! some of them will stay as separate couples in tanks and others eventually will go in a tub pond of their own. In the 4th tub pond I would like to put some ricefish (Oryzias latipes), just waiting to source the variety I prefer , a yellow one called Ogon Radenko.

I agree. That’s what I’m doing in the contest thread. I want to document the highs and lows. I almost started a 3rd thread to document a sick fish that I’m treating. I didn’t because we have to document 2 months and I seriously doubt she will make it at this point. I do have another thread about her in the medication section where I do updates on her progress. Was it Albert Einstein who said we learn from our failures more than our accomplishments? So true when it comes to these fish.
Patty