How to divide group of 20 juveniles?

[discusdave]

Hi everyone,
I have a group of 20 Violet Reflections discus. They have been together in a 75 gallon tank for about 4 weeks now. It is time to split the group into two sets of 10 individuals to avoid overcrowding.

Is there any rhyme or reason to splitting them up? Should I take the 10 biggest out and keep them together, or should I mix them up? There are already some preferences I have for the shape/coloration of a few. I was wondering if it would help the slightly smaller ones to be in a different tank than the large ones.

Thanks for any help.

Regards,
Dave

[KIWI13]

Hello Dave,

IMO I would take out the 10 best fish and move em so I could grow em up differently. Then again you can also move out the ten biggest and try and work on gettign the smaller ones up to size.
Go with whatever makes you feel good. I guess it comes down to what you want to obtain from these fish. if your looking at breeding stock then take out the best.

Good Luck

Jas

[Carol_Roberts]

I don't think it matters - you'll be giving both groups the same food and water changes.

[lauris]

I would split by size, any sex difference in the groups (males bigger?) won't make a difference when you mix them back up once they are mature, or close to full size. I think a smaller, round, probably female fry will do better and end up a better fish if with similarly sized.

As a practical matter, you will find that at that size in that big a tank they will zoom around like rockets when you go to separate them. Good luck getting them divided without stressing them and yourself. I would put in some kind of divider and try to snare them and separate them over a period of a couple days, perhaps during water changes when the height of the water is lessened.

[Dave C]

It depends on what you want to do with them. If you plan to keep them all then it doesn't really matter. If you plan to sell some & keep the best then separate on the basis of what you want to keep. Don't let prospective buyers see the "keeper" tank, just the tank of fish for sale. Otherwise no one will want to buy the fish for sale after seeing the fish you're not selling. In the end they will talk you into selling the keeper fish and you'll end up selling them all.