Question about growing Discus

[Fordcobra1986]

I received 6 2.5” fish from Hans three weeks ago Tuesday. I’ve been feeding 3-4 times daily, mostly fdbw with some Cobalt flakes as well. My water changes regiment consists of 80% every other day, as well as 10% daily to suck up any detritus. So, out of curiosity, I measured my biggest and smallest fish today after having them three weeks. The biggest was rubbing 3.5” and the smallest was a hair under 3”. The smallest one isn’t as aggressive during feeding, but does eat, and is more shy than the other 5 fish. Is this typical behavior out of one fish out of a bunch? I’m already not counting on her being my biggest, but can this fish still grow to a relatively full size even though she doesn’t eat enough to appear to have a full, fat belly?

[RogueDiscus]

My opinion/experience is basically yes, as long as it is eating. Like you say, it may not be the biggest, but should continue growing, although perhaps more slowly. It might just be getting comfortable in the pecking order and could perk up later. There is always the possibility it will be the runt, but still could be an enjoyable, nice shaped fish. If it starts hiding constantly and not eating, that could be a sign of something else going on.

[Oxboy]

Check out this thread, OP:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?136402-Can-you-unstunt-a-runt

[RogueDiscus]

At this point, I think they are just young, and it's too early to call it a runt.

[peewee1]

I received 6 2.5” fish from Hans three weeks ago Tuesday. I’ve been feeding 3-4 times daily, mostly fdbw with some Cobalt flakes as well. My water changes regiment consists of 80% every other day, as well as 10% daily to suck up any detritus. So, out of curiosity, I measured my biggest and smallest fish today after having them three weeks. The biggest was rubbing 3.5” and the smallest was a hair under 3”. The smallest one isn’t as aggressive during feeding, but does eat, and is more shy than the other 5 fish. Is this typical behavior out of one fish out of a bunch? I’m already not counting on her being my biggest, but can this fish still grow to a relatively full size even though she doesn’t eat enough to appear to have a full, fat belly?

fish are like all animals. Some grow faster and larger than others do. I spoke with one of our forum favorite fish supplies, Kenny, recently. We were talking about your very question. "Some species," he said, "grow slower than others." If you optimize your conditions then your have optimized those fish grown potentials.

[Fordcobra1986]

I guess another thing I’m wondering about is if it is normal for there to be a fish out of a group raised together that just doesn’t eat and grow like the rest? I like to think I’m doing all I can to give them a healthy environment: the nitrates are constantly below 5ppm, I feed them on a constant basis (I get a friend to feed them while I’m at work), I probably overfeed so that each fish can get a good share. Is it just typical that one individual fish just doesn’t take off quite like the rest? I know it’s too early to really worry and say it’s a runt, I’m just wondering what others’ observations have been.

[Johnny95132]

Yeah, I had experience with fish that would lag behind the others in terms of growth compared to rest of the grow out group. I would always hold onto them hoping that they would catch up, but once they became smaller, they would usually continue to get outcompeted by the other larger discus. IMO, once a discus lags behind its peers, the more likely they will get out competed by them and then fail to grow. I don't know the reason behind the lagging growth, but I do believe that it's genetic related.

[L200GreenPhantom]

That is very typical behavior from what I have seen. I have raised discus from young in groups of 6, 8, 14 and 18, and I always ended up with one or two runts. The runts do reach maybe 4 inches while the rest did reach 6+ inches.

[Iminit]

Just a question are all your discus the same type? It seems that when buying the same type people have this problem more often. I have a runt but I knew it getting him. Store bought and I wanted to see if I could save him. I did :). He’s at best 3” in my tank of 6” discus. But he hold his own. Now if you have a fish that is falling behind you can move it to another tank and bring it up in there. This works if it’s eating still.

[coralbandit]

Raising only two sets of discus fry I think there are fish that will be the runt from day 1. Never to young to be behind . Stunting takes time and I am sure some runts take more time and circumstances to show /evolve .
I have noted difference in size as early as 10 days and just today was shocked to see the smallest of a batch of 80+ being only 1/4 the size of the others and less then half the size of the next smallest .Just today I spotted a 2 month old less then dime size [maybe fingernail ] while the others are 2+ inches with the next smallest over an inch for sure ..In every spawn there will be a runt and beast .Sometimes it is physical abnormality other times it is from the hierarchy ranking ..There are winners and losers in every race ? There are runts and beast in every spawn ?
I don't usually cull before 2-3 months even though for some it may be harder with a larger fish . I like to give them a chance / benefit of the doubt but have say todays runt was not ever going to catch up .
Honestly only seeing it for the first time today and then having to search hard for it later it was already hiding and isolating so there was no sense in keeping it .They are 2 months today so I am just starting to look for the odd ones ..There are always a few and that is to be expected IMO. As long as it is not a considerable number I think it is nature . 2-5% in a spawn of 75-100 would seem within reason to me ? Same goes for beast IMO..The rest fall into average [above average ,average ,below average] ..The difference in those may not be easily recognized without much more time involved .

Now a fish that arrives the same size at 2.5 inches like you say falling behind has achieved the lowest rank in the hierarchy and may grow well but probably will never catch back up with the others without being removed and given special or individual attention IMO. I can not say if it will reach the same size given enough time but I would suspect it will not .

[RogueDiscus]

This is a growth chart for human males. Note, whichever thread an individual starts on, they really don't get a chance to change trajectory. So, yes, runts from day one, for whatever reason.

127300

[coralbandit]

I am the runt of my family ~!
About 167cm...:p
But taller then mom !
We are not assuming the chart represents a family that had 9 sons are we ?

[RogueDiscus]

Good things come in small packages!

I like this graph (as a math teacher) because it's really 3-dimensional. It is based on observed data. One can easily visualize the idea of squishing it all into an average. But each line represents a level of probability. If you can visualize a vertical line at any point on the graph, and the the lines represent the distribution of a bell curve rising up out of the chart. The numbers in the margin are the percentiles.

Sorry if that was too much.

The point really was what happens at day one is most important.