Rehabilitating a pair of Runts...

[ChloroPhil]

Hi folks,

A friend of mine is giving me a runty pair of red turquoise to grow out. What are the best foods for me to use to get the best growth and color for the fish? I'm not interested in making my own mixtures or growing live food other than brine shrimp.

The fish are probably around 5-7 months old and have had a hard time competing with some of the other, larger, discus in their current home. They're going into a bare bottom/ pot planted 20g (high) with a temp around 86*F, KH of 1, GH of 2, and a pH of 6.6-6.4. Aside from the potted plants I plan on having some floaters and hope to have daily 25% WC so water-borne nutrients shouldn't be a problem.

Anything else I should know? I'm not out to attain maximum growth or breeding condition. I just want to re-habilitate a pair of potentially beautiful fish for eventual housing in a planted display aquarium.

Thanks,

Phil
Charlotte, NC

You probably want to raise your GH some up to around 3 if you do want them to grow some. I'd feed frozen bloodworms, ocean nutrition formula one flakes, tetra colorbits, and live blackworms if your LFS sells them. Good luck. Post some pics soon!

Brad

[ChloroPhil]

Brad,

What store do you usually shop at? I used to frequent Fintastic but found the people friendlier and the service better at Frank and Pegs. Now I just order my stuff online...

Hey,
I go to fintastic for stuff that i need right away that Petsmart doesn't have. I know the guys well at Fintastic and they are arrogant - telling me that 50% waterchanges every day is way too much for discus. I prefer to order online too. I'm about to sell some fish to Fintastic, so if you wanted them, I'd be glad to sell them to you pretty cheap...like the same price i was gunna get from Fintastic. These are not perfect fish, however, so you may not want that. I do have an order coming up from Cary at GLD so if you want to go in on that with me you're more than welcome.

Brad

[brewmaster15]

Hi ,
How big are these fish currently? There may be nothing that can be done for them from a growth point of view. Stunting can lead to permanent runting.

-al

I agree with Brew....
They may get fatter but not bigger. I know that first hand because I have a few.... Chances are if the eye is rather large, always a runt.

Good luck to ya, Phil ...

Julz

but if they are only runted because of environmental factors, they could have some really nice offspring. (he did say they were a pair, right?)

[ChloroPhil]

I just got them yesterday and the largest is about 3" without the tail. Both have eyes a little smaller than a pencil eraser. Neither of them are what I would call full-bodied, I can see some thinness in the forehead and upper portion of the body. I was curious how big the eye should be on a fish with this size body. I've never used this method to divine proper body size before...

After watching these two try to outcompete other fish twice their size the cause is pretty obvious to me and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some permenant stunting, but I have faith that these guys should be able to grow another inch or two if given the opportunity to eat as much as they can without competition. My sole goal is to get them in shape and looking as good as possible before I transfer them to my planted display tank.

Oh, I'm not sure that they're a breeding pair, I just got a pair (2) of them..


Tank stats:

Barebottom with potted plants
pH: 6.6
KH: 2*
GH: 3*
Temp: 86*F
Powerhead/Sponge Filter with two Bio-Wheels.
25% daily WC with aged water

They got live brine shrimp last night but weren't interested in eating and some frozen beef heart this morning. I've also got frozen bloodworms..anything else you would suggest?

[chavez720]

Phil -

Thanks for taking the fish off my hands. Never fed them beefheart so it may take them awhile to acclimate them to the taste.

This is what they were being fed:

2X a day each food

Tetrabits - 1X week for vitamins
Frozen Daphnia - 1X week
Frozen White Worms - 1X a week
Rest of the time Frozen Brine Shrimp (SF Bay Brand)

In the summer I treated them with Mosquito Larvae from the "TUB" as well as baby guppies. Good luck with my babies.

Paul

[ChloroPhil]

Thank YOU for letting me try my hand with them. They've got some great color potential if they'd start eating and fill out some. But with that monster Turq out of the way they'll be doing well.

Besides, I couldn't turn you down when you got the look of "OOOOH. I've got room for more fish now" look on your face..

[RichieE]

I had two SS that were the same size. One grew large and the other hardly grew at all. I took the large one and the" tank bully" out because they paird off. In about 3 weeks the fish I thought was going to be stunted started to grow a lot. I dont think he will ever be as big as "his brother" but hes not a bad looking fish IMO. The fish are about 14-16 months old. Rich

[RAWesolowski]

Phil,

Nice advice from the board. Higher temp is good to stimulate appettite with more hardness. Try blackworms. Pickiest eaters love them and they seem to be the best for me in adding growth. Also, blackworms tend to foul the water less than beef heart or flakes.

[arpanlib]

hi,
even i dont use prepared foods, except the brine shrimps and tetra bits, flake food and some veggies

i think that this is more than enough for my discus and they have grown to 5 inches in 12 months.

arpanlib