My Nine DIscus

[Tito]

I recently bought 9 juvenile Discus from Discus Madness. Five of them have nearly doubled in size but the rest have stayed nearly the same size when purchased.

Is this normal? Can a pecking order do that? Will the guys that haven't grown much be stunted?

They are in a 125 gallon.

I feed NLS, Spirulina Bhrine Shrimp and MYSIS. Al the shrimp are Frozen.

Also should I try to grow the little guys in another tank?

[Greg Richardson]

How long have you had them?
You could try doing that and hopefully get two of them to take off.
Weird you have so many remaining the same.
Normally one or two in a group will lag behind but 4 out of 9 I just haven't read about that happening much at all.

You might want to power feed some BH to that group if you seperate them and see if that will get their growth going.

[Tito]

Yea I know it's a bit odd. What I have observed is that there is a definite pecking order. But if that were not bad enough - some fish favor MYSIS and Others Favor the Bhrine Shrimp. Some will not pick at the NLS at all. Those are the ones that have stayed small.

[White Worm]

In a group, you will have slow growers but strange at almost half and yes, the lowest guy sometimes is the smallest but thats the way it goes. Thing is, you need the low guys to get the highest specimens of the bunch. Some will also be picky eaters. Depends on how flexible the breeder gets them eating different foods as they grow. It takes time to conditioned them to eat what you want them to eat and this can take months. I Lost a few who held out for specific food like FBW that I cannot handle as I am highly allergic. I'd try FBW's if you can and I would leave them all in the same tank because you chance another (maybe one of your nicer ones) becoming the bottom guy.

[Tito]

I'm allergic to worms as well so that's out of the question. I am glad that my faster growers are my favorites! The slow growers will have to figure it out. It's really two that have not grown much at all but the other two have not done as well either.

[Jules4me]

Hi Tito,
I just got my juveniles ( ten nickel to quarter size) on the 2nd of Feb. and the same thing was going on with two of them. The others are growing quickly and these two little guys, not so much!! It seemed the little ones just weren't that "into" anything I fed. I cut back on the amount of food at each feeding but still feed 6-8 small meals every day. I also feed the most nutrient rich as the first, middle and last meal of the day. They like the seafood mix and it's very good for growth. I also feed them ON Prime Reef. It was recommended by some of the members on here. Water changes are as important as everyone says they are...seems to increase their appetites ( maybe that's my imagination but they sure ACT hungrier after WC's:)). Since I've done all this, the littles are digging right in with the bigger ones. It's only been a few days since I made the subtle changes. Hope they start to grow. Hope you find the trick for your babies. Best of luck...

Jules