why not growing?

[CoKen]

hi Guys

my discuses are having a problem, they are not growing, colour are not developing.

background info:
44 galon tank, 7 dicuses, 30 degree, 6.9 PH, 0 ammonina, 0 nitrite, 25% water change twice a week. 4 times feeding a day (beef heart, blood worm, brian shrimp, and dry food) but change to twice feeding a day (dry food, brian shrimp, and blood worm), good apettite, have been having them for almost 8 months, but they are still 1.5 inches in size. about two months ago, i gave 1 discus to my brother in law, he has a 300 litres water tank with 6 existing discuses, every setting is the same as mine, even feed the same food (dry food), but this given discus grows to almost 3 inches, brilliant colour developed.

by comparision, my discuses are still the same size (1.5 inches) with minimum colour.

pls help, your opinions are appreciated.


rgds
Ken

[pcsb23]

Ken,

First thoughts would be to increase the w/c's, both frequency and amount, then feed more. If they still on't grow then start to suspect some internal parasite.

Before any treatments though, increase the w/c's and feedings.

hth,

[CoKen]

Hi Paul

but my brother in law changes his water only 10% sometime once a week, sometime twice a week without consistant. this is why i m not convinced. i understand that discus need fresh/clean water.

how many times do u think i should change the water?


rgds
Ken

[poconogal]

Ken, I remember that awhile back you had issues with cloudy water and an overstocked tank. Have you now given some of your fish away besides the one that you mentioned in this post? Your current fish load would determine, to some extent, the frequency and size of the water changes that should be made.

[pcsb23]

Hi Ken,
I can understand your reluctance, and yes they do need clean water. Your brother in laws tank is atl least half as big again as yours so your water will deteriorate much quicker than his. One of the side effects of fish waste breaking down are things known as Dissolved Organic Compounds or DOC's for short. These constituete things like phenol and other nasty stuff, these are though to impede growth and development, so we must remove them as often as we can.

I would do at least 3, preferably 4 or more w/c a week and up the amount to 33% or better still 50% for now and see how that goes. This coupled with heavy feeding should see them start to grow, I would expect to see changes within a couple of weeks.

[CoKen]

Paul

your explanation is very good, i might give it a dry to increase the water change to once every 2 day, i only have a spare 50 litre barrel to age the water overnight, this is equivalent to 25% to my tank. and also increase feeding back to 4 times a day, with variety of beef heart, blood worm, shrimpe, and dry food.

about the water ageing, i dont wanna use any conditioner, like chlorine remover, etc.... instead, i put in a an air pump to pump it over night. will this serve the same purpose?

thanks for help.


Poconogal, the cloudy water has been solved by putting a UV sterliser, this works like a magic, water cleared crystally overnight after plugging the UV steriliser.

rgds
Ken

[pcsb23]

Ken,

Provided that the water only has chlorine in there should be no problem doing this. Increasing the w/c to every other day will help and I understand the limitation of storage too! If you preheat it in the barrel too then thats even better for the discus, they don't then keep getting cold showers :)

Blood worm is a very good conditioing food, beefheart can be messy and affect the wtaer quality so half an hour after feeding bh remove any uneaten food.

[CoKen]

hi Paul

i now decided to give it a daily 25% water change, i age the water overnight with air-pump on and preheat it, and also adjust the PH to the tank level, ie, 6.9. i dont think there is any bio-bacteria in the fresh water. the next question i have is, will it reduce the bio-bacterias (beneficial to the fish) in the tank water due to the more freguent water change?

can you explain a bit more to me please? thanks again, u have been very nice and helpful to this web site and all beginners. :thumbsup:

rgds
Ken

[RockRiverfish]

Hi Ken,

The good bacteria don't "live" in the water, they colonize solid surfaces such as filter media (sponges/filter pads/etc), gravel (if any), and pretty much every other hard surface in the tank. Therefore, biologic filtration will not be negatively affected by larger or more frequent water changes.

[pcsb23]

Ken,

Sorry for the delay in posting, fortunately, RockRiverfish answered it as good as I could :) We have some good members here :)

I think changing 25% per day is excellent and will help improve the growth rate and health of the fish.

[CoKen]

thanks guys

your answers are very helpful.

i will set a task to do this new project for the next 6 weeks to see if the result will turn out as i expected. i will let u know.

rgds
Ken