Questions about stunted discus

[hadji25]

Hello all I am kinda new here and haven't posted alot.

I just rescued 8 various discus from a person that was moving. She said the they are 1 1/2 years old but, the are very small(3-4in) and skinny. I asked her about this and she told me that her lfs told her to feed them every 3 day or she would kill them by overfeeding. She was only doing water changes every 2 weeks or so.

I have had them here for about 4 days now and I have to tell the seem very happy, eating great, and very active. These are not grade A discus by any means(lots of pepper on some, color off on others). Their eye size does not seem too out of proportion. I know some of you would cull fish like these, but not so perfect discus need homes too!!!

My question is there a way to slightly reverse stunting with proper care and feeding? I know I will never have a flawless 7in monster out of these fish, but i would like them to be the best that they can be. I will do what it takes to try and reverse the neglect that they have dealt with for a long time.

I respect and value most of your opinions, so let me hear what you all have to say on this topic. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

~Brian

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Every 3 days?? .......... Its unbelievable some of the bad advice you can get from these LFS's. They should be run out of business IMO!


Plenty of good food and WC's and hope for the best.

What size tank do you havethe eight in?

Stocking density will determine how often you need to do WC's.

When i got my used 100 gallon tank it cam with a couple stunted discus and after finding this site and learning all i could i started pumping food at them and doing frequent WC's and the one grew quickly and rounded out nicely but the other never did grow anymore and is extremely football shaped. The small one just never did eat much so he never grew.

One thing to watch for is bloat since they didnt get fed often and now will probably eat like pigs. Get some epson salt to have on hand just in case.

That happened to one of mine and the epson salts took care of it pretty quickly.

[greyhoundfan]

If these discuses were kept in these conditions for 1.5 years I'm afraid it's too late to get anything out of them.

Your friend was given some very bad info from the LFS. Discus need to be fed A LOT during their early stages of development. Some people even do it 8 times a day. Water change schedule was pretty bad every two weeks just doesn't cut it. What kind of tank did they come from? Planted, gravel, bare bottom? I'm guessing they came from a tank with gravel, this makes it even worse.

At this point the only thing you can do is increase their diet, feed them at least 3 times a day and do plenty of water changes. 8 Discus is a good number, how big is your tank? Is it bare bottomed or do you have gravel in it? Are there any other fish besides discus in there.

If you can I'd go with a bare bottom tank, up the water changes, increase their diet and make sure it is well balanced. I would not expect much out of them. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.:(

As long as they are happy and responsive you have a chance to get something out of them. Main thing is that you enjoy them.:D

Cage, you beat me.. duplicated efforts.. at least I know I wasn't off base.

[lhforbes12]

Both Cage and Reid gave you some excellent advice. Your fish will never get big, but the one thing you have going for you is that fish continue to grow throughout their lives. At this point the best you can honestly hope for is to fatten them up some. Having giant discus isn't as important as having discus that you enjoy and it sounds as though you are enjoying yours. Good luck with them!

[Greg Richardson]

A different perspective.......


I know some of you would cull fish like these, but not so perfect discus need homes too!!!

You may not want to hear this but............

I'd take them back to the LFS and give them back letting them know their advice is the results right here they are looking at.

Someone at that LFS needs to be educated to put it nicely.

I understand your compassion for them. Compassion is great!
Isn't there another way though to show your compassion and not pay the price for others actions?

The other side of the compassion coin is how many more not so perfect fish will need homes if the LFS continues their actions???

One has the choice of doing something about it or let a whole bunch more fish be abused in the future.

I've told LFS many times their fish are sick and shouldn't be sold.

They didn't even know what to look for.

We all are always learning and giving advice.
Yet, if no one speaks up when the results of the advice end up like you describe I think it's all of our duty for the love of the hobby to speak up.

Something to think about.

[Ed13]

Every 3 days?? .......... Its unbelievable some of the bad advice you can get from these LFS's. They should be run out of business IMO!



yet, SOME of the ones that go under are those that buy good stock and give proper advise, the casual aquarist cares only for low prices and availability and LFS's that actually do things the right way have too big of an overhead to compete with those that don't. What should you do? support those that do things right even if it is a little pricier, maybe just by pointing to others the way there! THIS MY WAY OF THINKING THOUGH!


A different perspective.......



You may not want to hear this but............

I'd take them back to the LFS and give them back letting them know their advice is the results right here they are looking at.

Someone at that LFS needs to be educated to put it nicely.



Yes, educate them, but give them a chance to learn become there friend, explain them how things should be first! If that does not work look for the time were the store is full;) , and keep in mind that sometimes word of mouth is just as powerful in these close circles! At least in my area there are close to 7 LFS and all know how the other operates;)