If my Discus fishes are looking healhy?

[GoldenSurfer2]

Hi,
I have been keeping Discus for the past 1 year. I bought 6 discus fishes whose size were about 1.5 inches. Now (after almost a year), 3 of them they have grown to a size of around 5 inches, while the other 3 are almost 4 inches. I have attached the pics.
I feed them :
Tetrabits complete
Hikari BioGold pellets
Australian blackworms

Are they looking healthy? Is their size 'Ok' for almost 1.5 years discus? I have a feeling that their body is not getting proper round shape.
103222103223103224103225

Kindly suggest your opinions on their body shape and health.

[Ryan925]

Hi,
I have been keeping Discus for the past 1 year. I bought 6 discus fishes whose size were about 1.5 inches. Now (after almost a year), 3 of them they have grown to a size of around 5 inches, while the other 3 are almost 4 inches. I have attached the pics.
I feed them :
Tetrabits complete
Hikari BioGold pellets
Australian blackworms

Are they looking healthy? Is their size 'Ok' for almost 1.5 years discus? I have a feeling that their body is not getting proper round shape.
103222103223103224103225

Kindly suggest your opinions on their body shape and health.

First I must say I'm not expert. I would say your fish look healthy but I believe they should be larger and rounder at that age.

You got them very young during the most crucial time for their growing stage. How much water do you change?

The recommendation is usually bare bottom tank and lots of feeding and wc to get them to grow to full potential.

Your fish don't look bad and actually could be much worse for a first timer like yourself. Usually newbies are urged to start wirh larger fish and learn to care for them.

Kudos on keeping them for a year and having them healthy. I'd say you did a pretty good job for a first time grow out. It's always a learning experience with them

I believe you just didn't have the optimum environment for growing them. The fire red has nice color.. Your turq is showing significant stress bars.

[GoldenSurfer2]

Thank you Ryan for your response.

I understand that bare bottom tanks are always preferable (or, must ) for Discus. I have a plan to take out the sand and gravels from this tank to make it a bare bottom soon.
I do 50% water change every 3 days. The tap-water at my place has a PH of about 8.2, so I have to arrange for RO water. The PH in the tank is maintained at 6.5.

Ammonia is 0, nitrite is also negligible. However, I do notice a high nitrate value (`40 ppm) in the water.

Any suggestion to reduce the nitrate value and the stress level in the fish?

[Ryan925]

Thank you Ryan for your response.

I understand that bare bottom tanks are always preferable (or, must ) for Discus. I have a plan to take out the sand and gravels from this tank to make it a bare bottom soon.
I do 50% water change every 3 days. The tap-water at my place has a PH of about 8.2, so I have to arrange for RO water. The PH in the tank is maintained at 6.5.

Ammonia is 0, nitrite is also negligible. However, I do notice a high nitrate value (`40 ppm) in the water.

Any suggestion to reduce the nitrate value and the stress level in the fish?

Yes 40 ppm is very high. Should be under 10. Biggest prob is your gravel it's impossible to keep clean.

I was noticing less than satisfactory results in my discus when I had my tank planted. After removing gravel and switching to sand their color, growth and shape really improved. Also my fish stress bars went away as well.

To get those nitrates down I would do daily water changes and deep vac that gravel.

If your ph is above 8 how are you maintaining such a low ph without RO

As you will find here acidic water is not necessary. You simply need stable ph.

[rickztahone]

I don't believe the discus look unhealthy. For 1.5yrs they could be a lot bigger.

If/when you change the sand/gravel, do it slowly over a few weeks, not all at once. You have a lot of beneficial bacteria and removing it all at once may not be the best idea

[GoldenSurfer2]

I think I should make the tank bare bottom, should do more water changes with stable PH. Thanks for your suggestion. Hope these will help my discus to grow and look beautiful.

[Ryan925]

I don't believe the discus look unhealthy. For 1.5yrs they could be a lot bigger.

If/when you change the sand/gravel, do it slowly over a few weeks, not all at once. You have a lot of beneficial bacteria and removing it all at once may not be the best idea

Great advice there. When I did my sub switch my tank did go through a mini cycle afterwards. I had to do big WCs daily for about a week until the BB was able to catch back up

If you use a big enough diameter hose you should be able to vac gravel out little by little with WCs

[GoldenSurfer2]

yes, I second to your advice to change the gravel/sand slowly. Thank you :)

[John_Nicholson]

Your discus do look healthy. They are on the small side and the shape is not exactly what you would hope for. Lots of times the difference in your discus( 5 inches ) and "nicer" fish is simple the care that they get while growing. If people want their discus to get 7+ inches it normally requires large daily water changes. Some people are not concerned with that. You have not done bad and your fish probably reached 80% of their potential. Removing the sand/gravel now will not really change anything. The fish are pretty much grown at this point.

-john

[GoldenSurfer2]

Hello John,
Thank you for your response. I am still learning many things about keeping discus and have got some valuable info over this forum.
I hope my next lot of discus would turn out to be much nicer than these. And its not a good idea to buy smaller younger discus as they require much more care than what i would be able to provide.
Any suggestion on the food? I feed them mainly hikari bio gold and tetrabits complete. Sometimes i feed them frozen dried australian blackworms. Tetrabits tend to change color of the yellows and blues. So looking for a stable staple pellets for discus.

[John_Nicholson]

Lots of good food out there. I feed a beef heart mixture myself, but I am pretty old school.

-john

[Filip]

Hi Goldensurfer and welcome. Yo did a pretty decend job with your first batch of discus and they look nice and healthy .Their size and shape would be much better if you raised them the right way , that is BB tank and daily +50% WC but they are still decend looking fish .
At least , now you have seen and know the difference in keeping and final results for your self , and im sure yo will do much better with your next discus batch . And nothing can beat your own experience .