Smallest size to buy

[ganjero]

What the smallest size I should buy discus? Is it ok to buy 1" discus? if it is, can I raise them in a 20g tank before I place them in my 120g?

[vss]

If you buy them locally it will be fine, but if they have to go through shipping, I wouldn't recommend to buy fish below 3'' or at minimum 2.5'', as they will have very high chance to become stunted...


fish below 2.5'' usually need to be fed a lot of times and change a lot of water per day to make them grow well and have better shape...so it is more time-consuming and tiresome than starting with some larger discus. However if you do have a lot of time and knows the right way to raise juvs, it is actually better to start from smaller fish, as it is easier to improve their shape and develop their full potential at younger age...

it is fine to raise very young juvs at higher density. We need to change a lot of water everyday and eventually cull a certain % of fish anyways...discus has the nature of competing with each other when they were young, so that a higher density will force the juvs to eat more aggressively, which lead to higher growth rate and more uniform growth, if the water and parasite problem is properly taken care of.

just my 2 cents...

-Xiaofei :)

[Jhhnn]

Starting out, I just followed the best advice I could get, which was to buy at least half a dozen 3" to 4" fish from one of our sponsors, Kenny Cheung. It's all been good so far. If that's more than you can afford atm, save your money. The mortality rate on small discus in the care of inexperienced keepers is obviously large, and is, I suspect, part of the reason discus are deemed "hard to keep".

Kenny routinely offers very nice fish of the more common and nonethless beautiful varieties at entirely reasonable prices, as do other sponsors. It's the kind of thing where the outlay of a few hundred dollars is well worth it, if you're really serious about keeping discus. Dealing with small discus is best left to those with experience, imho, something you'll have if you're successful over time with larger specimens...

[Eddie]

Starting out, I just followed the best advice I could get, which was to buy at least half a dozen 3" to 4" fish from one of our sponsors, Kenny Cheung. It's all been good so far. If that's more than you can afford atm, save your money. The mortality rate on small discus in the care of inexperienced keepers is obviously large, and is, I suspect, part of the reason discus are deemed "hard to keep".

Kenny routinely offers very nice fish of the more common and nonethless beautiful varieties at entirely reasonable prices, as do other sponsors. It's the kind of thing where the outlay of a few hundred dollars is well worth it, if you're really serious about keeping discus. Dealing with small discus is best left to those with experience, imho, something you'll have if you're successful over time with larger specimens...

+1

[Jason K.]

Starting out, I just followed the best advice I could get, which was to buy at least half a dozen 3" to 4" fish from one of our sponsors, Kenny Cheung. It's all been good so far. If that's more than you can afford atm, save your money. The mortality rate on small discus in the care of inexperienced keepers is obviously large, and is, I suspect, part of the reason discus are deemed "hard to keep".

Kenny routinely offers very nice fish of the more common and nonethless beautiful varieties at entirely reasonable prices, as do other sponsors. It's the kind of thing where the outlay of a few hundred dollars is well worth it, if you're really serious about keeping discus. Dealing with small discus is best left to those with experience, imho, something you'll have if you're successful over time with larger specimens...

+2

[jeff@zina.com]

You can count me as a +3. But I made the mistake of buying little guys, about 1", locally. They never got larger than about 2.5", mostly because I couldn't/didn't feed them enough, give them enough room or enough clean water. I can't emphasize this enough -- Discus needs lots of clean water. At 3-4" or so feeding isn't as critical but the little ones need lots of care and feeding to gain full potential.

As another example, the same place I got mine still has small ones available. They are overcrowded and fed on a fish-store schedule. I've watched the same group for three months and they haven't grown a bit. At that age they should grow like weeds. I want to rescue them, but I know it's already too late.

Jeff

[Harriett]

I am liking starting with 4-6 week old babies--they handle shipping extremely well, adapt easily, and if well tended, they grow like crazy. You don't do much different for a 4 week than for a 12 week old discus, actually. Tons of clean warm water, lots of high protein nutritious meals, a reasonable amount of space. I find no more problems with stunting when you start with little guys than when you start with 12 week old babies.
Just my 2 cents.
Harriett