Growing discus

[kitykatfunkiehat]

I have three discus currently, and I'm getting more in a few days. I bought them as juvies at an LFS before I really knew what to look for, but I got lucky because they were actually of decent quality. I finally found my way here and I've made VAST changes to my tank protocols..and they seem to be doing really well. They may have been on the verge of being stunted, but I think I have saved them from it. They all ate really well and one in particular grew and is still growing, almost 4" now! But the other two I have separated because of aggression issues and I think they are a pair..they spawned only once though. They eat, but not very much, and aren't growing at the rate of the other one. One is about 3", while the other is about 3.5". I even changed their diet to beefheart! I find they leave alot of scraps :/ Is there anything I can do at this point to get them to continue growing? Or at least eating more? My beefheart mix is just pure BH and some omega one flakes I tossed in there.

I feel bad saying this but upon getting more discus, from a sponsor on here, I may not want these two if they don't grow up. What do I do?

[waters10]

I have three discus currently, and I'm getting more in a few days. I bought them as juvies at an LFS before I really knew what to look for, but I got lucky because they were actually of decent quality. I finally found my way here and I've made VAST changes to my tank protocols..and they seem to be doing really well. They may have been on the verge of being stunted, but I think I have saved them from it. They all ate really well and one in particular grew and is still growing, almost 4" now! But the other two I have separated because of aggression issues and I think they are a pair..they spawned only once though. They eat, but not very much, and aren't growing at the rate of the other one. One is about 3", while the other is about 3.5". I even changed their diet to beefheart! I find they leave alot of scraps :/ Is there anything I can do at this point to get them to continue growing? Or at least eating more? My beefheart mix is just pure BH and some omega one flakes I tossed in there.

I feel bad saying this but upon getting more discus, from a sponsor on here, I may not want these two if they don't grow up. What do I do?
Don't take my answer as final, but in my case, all my females stopped growing after they laid eggs. That would be 4 of my fish. Now they were bigger than yours, with the smallest being 5". I really wanted this smaller one to grow more, but I think it's been 8-9 months since she started spawning and she didn't grow anything since then. I only had 1 male so far, and he's exactly the same size since pairing with one of my females, but he's around 6" or a bit more anyway.

Let's see what others say.

[kitykatfunkiehat]

Shoot. I'd be happy with 5" over my 3" girl!

[mmorris]

Are all three roughly the same age? If so, I suspect they are all stunted. I would find a new home for all three, assuming they are healthy, and start over with 6 quality discus. If you are thinking about getting rid of two, you may as well start over and not risk contaminating the new ones. You will need to steralize everything, of course.

[kitykatfunkiehat]

One of them is growing though and eating like a pig. It's been maybe three weeks and he grew a full inch. I also thought he used to be the runt until I separated them and he grew like crazy, so I've kind of got a hot spot for him. Should I just take the other two to an LFS? Also, why steralize the tank? All of my fish are healthy. Wouldn't I just QT the new ones?

[Eddie]

Are all three roughly the same age? If so, I suspect they are all stunted. I would find a new home for all three, assuming they are healthy, and start over with 6 quality discus. If you are thinking about getting rid of two, you may as well start over and not risk contaminating the new ones. You will need to steralize everything, of course.


+1

[Spardas]

If you choose to start over, sterilizing everything would prevent the risk of potential pathogens in the old tank infecting all new fish. That's only if you choose to get rid of all your fishes. Even if your fishes are healthy, there's a possibility that they're already built an immune system for whatever pathogens that they may have dealt with before. If you introduce a new fish from a totally differrent setup that never experienced that type of pathogen, it may succumb to illness and die. That's why it's best to sterilize everything if you choose to start over regardless of how healthy your fishes look.

[kitykatfunkiehat]

Okay. But I would want to keep the one that is growing, and I do have other fish in the tank that I don't plan to get rid of. Should I still sterilize in that case too?

[Spardas]

Get a QT tank and leave the new fish in there for 3-4 weeks, then bring one fish from the main tank over and let them stay together for 1-2 weeks. Observe them carefully during the 4-6 weeks period and treat if necessary before putting them all together. It'll be best if your QT tank is somewhere in another room far away from the main tank.

[kitykatfunkiehat]

Okay I can do that!