discus color

[wghibbits]

hi, everyone this is my first post. i just got three very small discus,still no color they are about 1 to 1.5 inches. they are supposed to be blue diamond and whattley cross??just wondered how long before they start getting color and how long it takes to get full color. i'm very new to discus any help would be great.they are in a 110 gal.tank ph 6.4 temp 85.water changes every two to three days 25 %.

[Ryan]

Keep your water parameters constant, especially your pH, and feed them well. If they are happy and healthy, in the next several weeks you should start seeing changes as they grow. Are they brown now? I'm assuming by "Wattley cross" you mean Wattley Turquoise, which is a straited fish. If that's the case, yes, they start out pretty boring. Around 2 - 2.5" you should see blue striation come into the face and gills, and as they age it will spread throughout the body and fins. At this point, they should probably show some signs of blue in the anal and dorsal fins already. If not, it should be noticable very soon.

Having only 3 fish may lead to some problems down the road. At first they may be shy because of the tank being so large and the fact that there are only 3 of them. They feel more secure in larger numbers. However, watch them as they grow, because you could have a situation where one fish becomes dominant and harasses the weaker two... or worse yet, two fish become dominant and harass the weakest to death.

The size of the tank may help you in that respect. It might help to decrease some of the aggression between the fish as they establish their pecking order. They should have plenty of room to run and hide.

Ryan

[Alight]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=45077&page=2

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=46815

The threads above show some Blue Diamond X Red Turquoise babies that I bred and rasied at different sizes. This may give you and idea of what they should look like at various sizes and ages.

Al Light