second opinion

[steffen360]

I'm just kind of new to keeping discus specifically I'm 19 and I've been keeping community tanks since I was 9 after my father died and my mother was unwilling to take care of his tank full time. I've found that raising discus is much more challenging and more time consuming than any fish that I've kept before. I've had the specific fish below for about 6 months. I bought them from a local breeder in Des Moines at about 1 in. a piece. The larger of the two is now around 3 in. (Inamed it Rex) and the smaller at maybe 1 1/2 and I'm pretty sure it's stunted and I'm not quite sure what may be stunting it in the tank.The breeder I bought them from mentioned that he moved the baby's into another tank with some fish that he had recently bought from a pet store (they looked somewhat like African cichlids) and that they had been nipping at the fins of the baby's. I'm not sure if the 2 I haves' health problems (if it were wouldn't be shocked) is of my doing or due to something that may have happened at the breeders. I would love feedback regarding what I should be doing that I'm not:
-weekly water changes around 60%
-mix of frozen brine shrimp, beef heart, and blood worms fed every 1-2 days
-community tank includes
-3 spotted silver dollars ( will likely get moved to another tank)
-2 angelfish
-2 plecos (ones a small white albino)
-2 discus
All kept in a 55 gallon tank

Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated and implemented into my routine. I just bought 2 new discus so there's some urgency to this but im not too worried about their health for at least a couple weeks.
discus 1.jpgdiscus2.jpgdiscus parents.jpgparents of the 2

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Steffen and welcome to SimplyDiscus! I'll try to be gentle here, but you seem to have made many of the mistakes that folks new to discus do. Many of us started like you, hoping to raise these beautiful fish, but you've got lots working against you. So, where to start. Yes, your fish look stunted and in poor health. It is unlikely that they will recover and grow into thriving adults. Whether this was caused before you got them or after is hard to say. Raising young discus (juvies) usually requires almost daily large water changes, and a bare bottom tank environment, with no other fish, to keep it clean and minimize the potential for pathogens to grow in the tank. For that reason, beginners are usually encouraged to start with groups of 6 or more near adult fish (more expensive) until they get a handle on the maintenance required. Your fish in the planted community tank with gravel has many of the negatives working against it. I encourage you to read up on the "sticky threads" in the beginner section, including this video link I'm including.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...TCH-THIS-VIDEO!

I'm wondering if your two new fish are the proven pair you've posted the pic of. The simplest recommendation for them would be for you to start over with a cycled bare bottom tank just for the (don't mix in your others), and go from there. Please read up and ask more questions when you are ready. There are many here ready to help.

[steffen360]

The pair on the screen from craigslist is the pair that bred the 2 I own just to provided perspective. Im still unaware why my breeder decided to sell them but I do know he has another type of discus as a breeding pair that will likely breed more once he sells them The other problem I have is that is the fact that I'm not able to transfer all of those fish to my other 40 gal. and im kind of skeptical about buying another tank due to the fact the only other area my mom is going to allow me to put it is likely in the storage room which im not super comfortable with since there would be no other light besides the one i provide for the tank. I'm currently unable to move the angelfish and larger pleco due to the fact the pleco is just too large and the angelfish were the lower part of a pecking order from the other 2 angelfish i have living in the other tank. Is it possible I could remove everything from the tank (tell me if i should keep anything) and just keep the 2 angelfish and pleco in place of the other 2 discus that i would be missing in place of keeping the basic 6 people start with?

[White Worm]

The reason 6-8 discus are preferred is because they feel more comfortable in a school of their own kind. If you want discus, do a lot more research and start over with a group of young discus, bare bottom tank and plenty of water changes. The reason this has been challenging and time consuming is because you made some big mistakes early on like all of us have done at one time or another. The breeder may have sold you healthy young discus but they would never have been able to thrive in their current environment.

[Neptune]

Don't feel bad. A lot of us have been there. Ryan952 and myself both have threads where we started out similar to you, cleaned up our tanks, got on a good maintenance schedule and ended up with pretty good fish.

It's not too late if you are willing to put in the work and change a few things.

Here is my thread that chronicles my start.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...28251-Year-old

Here is what the fish grew to...just took the picture at snack time tonight.

If I can do it....you can do it!

[Kyla]

I don't know if those two stunted discus will ever get much more size on them... the OP has had them for 6 months. They r in real bad shape. I'd personally start over with new discus. But if u want to keep them I'd recommend to remove all the substrate (read up on how to do this safely), and remove the silver dollars. Increase feeding to 2x per day and double the water changes. Make sure u r cleaning out ur filters once a week as well.

[JamesW]

Don't euthanize your discus because they don't conform to the 6-7" brightly colored gold-standard people here are capable of producing.

You should be feeding 2-3 times a day. At that size a flake would be suitable, I like Omega One super color flakes, in addition to the beef heart, many think that mysis shrimp are superior to brine shrimp so if you can get them they are a great food!

As others have said, your discus look stunted, a little thin and at this stage will likely never reach a decent size even if you eliminated all substrate, all other fish, fed them home made beefheart recipe five times a day and do 90% water changes 2x a day.

You should increase your water changes but only to what is sustainable for you in the long term.