BIG "eyes" ?

[tau]

What makes a discus with big eyes less appealing or wanted? I notice that some discus on this forum were criticized for their larger eyes. I don't understand this because they look perfect to me. What is wrong with big eyes? Is it some indication of poor health? How big is too big?

[Carol_Roberts]

Big eye to body ratio means the discus will be small in size. Most of us like to grow big discus.

[tau]

Are you saying that the eyes grow at the same rate as the body. This means that if the eyes are big, than the fish is not going to grow anymore. This is really confusing me....... ( how big is too big ?)

[Carol_Roberts]

The eyes grow and the body doesn't. This can be from illness, bad water conditions, bullying, lack of food, etc.

[barron]

Hi

Big eyes mean the fish was under feed, the eyes grow even if they have very little to eat.

So this fish is older and his body has been stunted, by lack of care. Food.

Hope this clears the reason for not wanting big eyes.

Eyes need to be sized to the body.

Also reasons Carol stated.

Barron

[Willie]

Like everything else, the eye to body size ratio is a rule of thumb. There are many exceptions to the rule. A small fish with a big eye has clearly been stunted. Recently, however, a number of pictures of perfectly good looking discus has been damned because of the eye to body size ratio.

The fact is that Asian breeders have been breeding for smaller eyes in the newer strains. You'll see lots of discus with very low eye to body ratios among the new Pigeon Blood types, the newer Angel Diamonds and some of the newer Leopards. These fish are not necessarily growing better. They actually have smaller eyes. If you only look at the eye to body ratio, the perception exists that these fish are growing incredibly fast.

The classic strains, like Red Turqs and Cobalts, have larger eyes than the newer stuff. I saw several older types dumped on in this and other forums because the younger hobbyists are not familiar with these strains. These fish have relatively larger eye to body ratios, particularly when they are young.

At 2", I've seen perfectly good specimen condemned as "stunted". At 3", the same fish is praised as looking great. A recent example of this is the Violet Reflection, which is basically an improved Cobalt. The stunted looking fish at 2" looks perfectly fine at 3".

Willie

[richgrenfell]

Thanks very much for that post Willie!

Rich

[tau]

Yeah! Thanks for the detail reply. Just one more question. Once a discus has been "stunded" is this the end, or can it be made to grow again? :-\

[Carol_Roberts]

It depends on how old they are. Juveniles will grow more than adults,