Another group of discus

[Aquaman6410]

I've had my first group of discus for 2 years and learned a lot. Unfortunately, I've been feeling disappointed that they did grow out as nice as they could have. They are stendkers that I bought around 3" and grew them out in a 75 bare bottom, then moved to a 125 with sump after over a year old. I did daily 80% water changes when they where young and fed them beef heart mix, Al's blackworms, PE mysis, and a flake variety. The biggest one got to 5.5". The smallest is around 4.75". I feel like I tried everything right but still failed to grow them out successfully. I really wanted to have some nice proportioned big discus. In thinking about either leaving the discus hobby or giving a second group a try, this time from one of the Malaysian breeders to change things up. I'm just scared I not going to succeed with getting those larger adult discus. The ones I have now seem to be fine, there are two breeding pairs in the group of 7 total and lay eggs regularly with a large 75% minimum weekly water change. I reduced the amount of water changed once they approached 2 years old and stopped growing. Figured they really weren't going to go much further. The eye body ratio is not the greatest, even though the big guy is 5.5“+. Might sound crazy but I think my tap is the problem. Just needs to be aerated due to low kh and the ph swings after being aerated. It has about 370ppm TDS and a ton of Chloramine that I use Safe to get rid of. Harder water, just honestly not the greatest but it's water.
So, do I try to get past this first experience and get another group? If I do, what would be the minimum size to get? I thought about 4-4.5" but afraid that's too small and still can get stunted a bit or is that much better? I would aim for 5-6" if it didn't break the bank but not sure if it's worth going that big or if 4-4.5" is a great size and wont be stunted easy.

Any advice is appreciated. Trying to weigh my options and see if trying another round of discus is right or if I should go back to planted tanks/reef tanks fully.

[Pices]

Hi aquaman
I had a group of 10 that I grew up in a 75 gal bb. My TDS is 225-8 (I also live in FL). I also aged/heated my water and also did 80% wc daily. I also fed flake, fdbw, and beef heart. I had some that didn’t grow to their full potential but I attribute it to the fact that that the females who laid eggs were the ones that stayed at the size they were when they started laying eggs. Just wondering if this may have happened in your experience. I should add that my husband occasionally calls me Captain Obvious. Ha ha
While we have a lot of things in common, I aerated to prevent micro bubbles. My pH doesn’t swing whether aerated or not. Not sure if this will help, but thought I’d throw it out there. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
Patty

[nolefan]

I also live Florida I feel a lot depends on getting good stock especially the little guys .. I’ve had some that never grew big and others that grew like weeds so don’t think it’s the water .. my theory Is at less than 3 inches you could have been sent runts of the litter so they were probably never gonna get huge anyways .. .. it’s so easy to stunt a discus 3 inches and under ..