Discus Growth

[darcy12877]

I've had my discus for about 3 weeks now, the tukoise started out almost completly black and are now brillantly colourful and everyone is eating really good. I dont now for sure but it seems like my discus have grown alot in the 3 weeks i've had them, could this be true??? I do a 30% w/c every day. Also they are eating frozen bloodworms at the moment and they dont seem to like flakes. Could I try giving them freeze dried bloodworms instead??? Do you think they'll like them???
thanks for the help.

[phidelt85]

Welcome to Simply, darcy!! I'm sure some more experienced folks will chime in, but it's not unusual for you do witness your fish go through some growth spurts. What size are your discus? I don't recall the exact number but I think it something like discus can grow as much as 2-3" in the first 6mos. or so. Don't quote me on that. Hopefully someone will chime in on that point as well.

In regards to the flakes, try giving it to them when they are the hungriest, for example, as their first meal of the day. Start off with a small quantity so as not to pollute the tank with uneaten food. I have noticed that on my smaller fish when first giving them the flakes they were disinterested on the larger flakes and took to the smaller pieces. You may try crushing it into smaller pieces for them until they take to them better. You may also try getting them on some seafood pellets after youj've got them taking the flakes well. Try presoaking these to soften them up and make it easier for them to eat.

HTH and we wanna see some pics when you get to it. We all love pictures here :D

[darcy12877]

Well the smallest is about 3.5 inches and the biggest around 4 inches so they arent really babys, would they be considered adults or juvi's??? The 5 discus I own right now are 2 royal yellows, a pigeon blood and 2 red turquoise. Like I said they're eating good, but they arent really agressive with their food (except for the pigeon blood), they like to peck at it and in about 45 min. they eat all their food. But they're only eating BW's.

[phidelt85]

I would say they're still considered juvies.

[tonymaccs]

Hi,
At 3.5 to 4 inches, hopefully they are still juveniles, but possibly you could call them adolescent juveniles.;)
In 3 good weeks you could certainly witness them putting on some mass.
With the feeding, as Jose said, it can take time and a few tactics. Usually it is much easier to introduce new food to them as juveniles than adults.
Good luck with them.
Tony