Why Some of My Discus do not grow???

[Fish Finatics]

I am relatively new to discus keeping and have four discus tanks. While some of my discus grow well, others never seem to grow. I am wondering what I am doing wrong.

I have a fry tank which is currently not in use for discus but the other three tanks are of concern. I feed a min. of once a day, often twice a day. I feed using cones, two or more per tank depending on the number of discus per that tank. In the mornings when the lights come on I feed Spectrum discus formula as the tiny pellets seems to work well in cones. At night I feed frozen foods such as spirulina brine shrimp or bloodworms. We water change two to three times a week 1/3 to 1/2 tank volumn at a time. My tanks are broken down according to discus size, none are overcrowded. My 55 gal. for example has 5, 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inch discus normally. My 65 gallon has 6, 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inch discus and my 75 has 6, 6+ inch discus. Large Eheim Pro series canister filters are used on all tanks in addition to using fast mechanical filtration. Our water is super soft (.90 KH and 3 GH with a very low pH (6.2). I do raise our hardness using RO right or Equilibrium since these are all planted tanks. I do not use RO water at all. Some of our discus grow like wildfire mainly in the 75 gal. but other do not seem to grow at all like in the 55 gal. growing out tank.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)

[joshuajames]

grow them out in a bb. worked out better for me. and lots of beef heart and blood worms. some strains seem to grow faster then others also.

[Tito]

grow them out in a bb. worked out better for me. and lots of beef heart and blood worms. some strains seem to grow faster then others also.

Specially the Beef heart. I used to argue against it because it's not what they naturally eat - but it will fatten them up!!



Very messy and fouls water quickly and nastily! if I could say that.

I remember smelling my bare yes bare bottom 29 gallon one day - smelled like something was dead in it! Where was the beef? Behind the sponge! Needless to say 100% water change. Sucks that we have to feed beef in order to really get awesome results but I know it works cause I tried it.

[Danimal]

i was told never use a cone to feed, the food should be spread around the tank
i am not saying thats is your problem but it might help


dan

[Fish Finatics]

Thank you for your responses thus far. First off, being a dummy, what is a bb? My second question is, is there any kind of beefheart mix your discus seem to prefer over others. I've tried Jack Wattleys beef heart formula and they would not touch it. I ended up feeding it to my husband's oscar. My third question is to Dan specifically, Who told you not to use cones and what was the logic. I like the idea of uneaten food not going down into the tank. Yes I do have tetras to gobble up the leftovers and I usually empty uneaten foods from the comes after 15 minutes or so. I try not to have any more than two discus on any given cone to avoid pecking at each other.

Again I thank all of you for your responses. :)

[Fish Finatics]

I can be such a dummy sometimes, of course bb is "bare bottom"! It's been a long day, bad storms passing through eastern PA, lots of trees down on our property, power outage, lots of excitement.

I hope to move in a few months at which time we plan on setting up a fish room in our basement complete with 30 to 50 gallon bb tanks.

Thanks Again

[Jennie]

Bare bottom=BB.
try increasing food intake.
I have no opinion on cones as I have never used them, but when fish are finished feeding at the water surface they go down and graze the tank floor. I rarely have food left over.

[Danimal]

i was told by Al from Rocky Mountain Discus he said it would cause bullying ie bigger fish pushing smaller one out of the way,
also i find my Discus like to peck at the food on the bottom
i must also say that i have never used the cones, so maybe they work for some people
also Al (above) has a receipe for beef heart on his web site you may want to check out

dan

[Fish Finatics]

I think perhaps I overdid it with so many plants. The discus can't possibly graze with as many plants as I have!!!!!! The bottom of some of my tanks is completely covered with dwarf sag. and various low growing crypts.

Thank you Again Everyone

[Skip]

i use the cones for my frozen foods and live black worms.. some like the cones others like the bottom.. but it gets all eaten up..

i feed my toddler juvies (less then 1.5") beefheart.. but i siphon it up after awhile.. that helps to keep the water cleaner *IMHO*.. but they go to town after.. they dont' like flakes or tetra bits.. just frozen or live food.. go figure.. kids!:p

[Fish Finatics]

The idea of feding live food with discus has in the past scared me. I've heard both sides of the arguement but by large, most people strongly rec. blackworms (and white also). Do you change your water daily?

Many people do not rec. feeding terrestrial foods which is why I never tried another beef heart mixture yet most all the pros feed it. There is always so much info on both sides of the fence. :confused:

Thanks Warlock

[Skip]

my teenage juvies don't really do the beefheart.. i change their water every couple of days.. there are 6 in a 55g.. the babys are in 30g.. so they get changed everyday cuz they get fed more..

they all move the live blackworms.. WOW!! they go nuts!! its crazy.. from the first time i put them in.. if you are not sure what to do.. the do a Water CHANGE.. you cant go wrong with that. : ))

have fun with it..:D

[cranford]

some discus take long to grow then others, for exemple

my alenquers and santarems grow much fasert then my pigeon silvers, i do 10% water changes every 2 days , and on saturdays i do 50%.

[Chad Adams]

Dick Au said the optimum Water Change conditions for Juvies was 150% water change per day.
Chad

[Fish Finatics]

That sounds like a good water change regiment. I do about a 30% water change every 3 days or 50% if I can't get to it on time. I never let a tank go more than 5 days and that is very rare. With having all planted tanks, I have many delicate Rotala species (in my growing out tank) that can not take algae of any kind. It is amazing they can take the high temps. as that is where my teenagers are kept. It works well for both the plants and the youngsters.

I talked to my discus breeder/supplier and asked him about this problem. He rec. I buy HIS beefheart mixture rather than go through the hastle and expense of buying all the ingredients and making it myself. His recipe sounds very much like that of Al's at Rocky Mountain Discus. I figure my discus have all been fed this food all along and are use to it. I was doing the freeze dried tubliflex worm, Spectrum Discus Formula, frozen bloodworms, spiralina brine shrimp, flake thing and some of my discus have gotten huge, especially my Red Dragon while others do not seem to grow to spite all my attempts. As another member pointed out, my whites and silvers seem especially slow.

I thank you all for your time in responding.:)

[Fish Finatics]

I have one big problem with doing a bare bottom type set-up at this home. "They do require daily water changes" of at least 75% to as one responder pointed out "150%".

Hopefully I won't have the problem at our new house. Our water is just toooooooooooo soft and I do mean SOFT with a super volitile pH. I believe our new home has more neutral water conditions which will make the set-up your suggested (bare bottom) we have planned much safer. I plan on doing a hard plumbed multiple tank system at which time I will get into raising the real youngsters. For now I am just working on establishing good spawning pairs so I am buying all my discus at 3 1/2 inches or larger. I have two spawning pairs thus far but only like one of them. I need to move my male to my "reds tank" as he (Red Dragon) likes a not so colorful deep red turquoise. I have a beautiful, loud colored turquoise red (whatever the difference is) juv. I hope to eventually pair off with her.

Thank You Again:thumbsup:

[Danimal]

that sounds like fun, i have two starting the pairing process
the female is a Rose Red and the male is a Blue Turquoise, they are around 4'' and they are doing tex book swimming moves around the tank and last week she laid some eggs on my filter tube and the male ate them as soon as they came out
i will watch them for a little longer and in the mean time i am setting up a 40 gal tall tank for them to move to

dan

[Fish Finatics]

It's fun but it is incredibly expensive!!!! I love that quote from one of the members that says aquariums are glass boxes people put money into!!!!! That is great and so true. :)

I've got 9 tanks including a big reef system that has a big sump and two other tanks operating on that alone. Four discus tanks and three others, one rift lake, a 75 gal. community freshwater and a 50 gal. for my husband's oscar...... to say nothing of four water holding barrels YIKS

Believe me, I know all about putting money into these "glass boxes" but it is fun isn't it!!!!!!;)

[Danimal]

i think if my wife would let me i would get more tanks too, right now i have my planted/Discus 115gal and a 40 tall getting ready for breeding in my bedroom and i have a 40 long with a Butterfly Koi and a Fancy Gold fish in my hobby room in the basement, but if i could i would put a 300gal in the wall of the living room, but the wife would send me packing i think ( she thinks i am crazy now :-} )
are all of your tanks just your hobbies or are you selling also ?

[Fish Finatics]

Nice......;) Ya start with one tanks and go on and on from there! No, I don't sell, we are in it for the fun and learning experience. We are nearing retirement age and are hopefully in the process of buying our dream property. I plan on getting a 180 and doing discus and I am not sure how I am going to reach to all the areas with that..... Ha Ha, should be interesting:p

[Danimal]

that sounds great, i tried the salt water and found it was alot of work and i do have to travel a few weeks out of the year and it was to much for my wife and kids to deal with with me gone so i took a huge loss and went back to Discus,
and glad i did
u better get 2-180 one for hubby ;-)

[catgoldfish]

Dick Au said the optimum Water Change conditions for Juvies was 150% water change per day.
Chad

Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.

[Danimal]

i think you would need some kind of automatic thing on your tank
i would think if you changed that much water daily you would not need to run filters on the tank, and i guess you would save a little money on the electric bill but i would bet your water bill would make up for it

PS. i do a 50% WC weekly on my 115 and all of my fish are doing just fine ( big and small )

[Chad Adams]

Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.
That's not what was said. I'll repost for you.

Dick Au said the optimum Water Change conditions for Juvies was 150% water change per day.
Chad
This is what the OP asked:

I am relatively new to discus keeping and have four discus tanks. While some of my discus grow well, others never seem to grow. I am wondering what I am doing wrong.
Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)
I figured a "suggestion" I learned from the man who has written & co-authored numerous books on discus, written hundreds of articles on discus, done hundreds of talks on discus & has raised 1,000s of discus since the 60's would go a long way to helping this new person with their question.

I can be such a dummy sometimes, of course bb is "bare bottom"! It's been a long day, bad storms passing through eastern PA, lots of trees down on our property, power outage, lots of excitement.
I hope to move in a few months at which time we plan on setting up a fish room in our basement complete with 30 to 50 gallon bb tanks.
Thanks Again
"30 to 50 gallon tanks"

Specially the Beef heart. I used to argue against it because it's not what they naturally eat - but it will fatten them up!!
Very messy and fouls water quickly and nastily! if I could say that.
I remember smelling my bare yes bare bottom 29 gallon one day - smelled like something was dead in it! Where was the beef? Behind the sponge! Needless to say 100% water change. Sucks that we have to feed beef in order to really get awesome results but I know it works cause I tried it.
Tito has time for at least 100% & by the way I have time.

Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.
Who grows out juvies in a 100 gallon tank?

[Eddie]

Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.

I do, its easy if you have an easy method/set-up for it. Even my method can be simplified if I plumbed every tank and set-up a water fill system like many fish farm breeders use. ;)

[Jennie]

Quote:
Originally Posted by catgoldfish
Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.

devoted discus fanatics:)

[Chad Adams]

I do, its easy if you have an easy method/set-up for it. Even my method can be simplified if I plumbed every tank and set-up a water fill system like many fish farm breeders use. ;)


Quote:
Originally Posted by catgoldfish
Who has time for that? That is completely ridiculous! It's bad enough doing a 50 % water change everyday let alone a 150%. Especially when you have a 100 gallon and above tank.

devoted discus fanatics:)

:thumbsup:

[rich815]

I have a tank completely full of plants with 7 discus. Almost all were bought in June/July 2009 at about 3.5-4.5" in size. The bottom of my tank is thickly planted about 80% with a carpet of marsiela minuta, blyxa japonica, loads of crypts and many others. I feed twice everyday either hikari FBW, live blackworms, dried Australian blackworms, or a bit of my home-made tuna/shrimp/salmon/beefheart/spinach/collared greens/garlic/spirulina/centrum vit mix made from adapting several recipes found on this site (mostly from Eddie, thanks). I also feed flake from time to time but only 3-4 of the discus even take it. I feed my home-made mix by breaking a 1" square in size chunk off of a frozen flat and I rubberband that to a small flat stone. I do this with two pieces. I then place those two stones at two places opposite sides of the tank on top of the marsiela carpet. The discus go nuts for it and take turns pecking at it until it's gone about 10 minutes later. Some more than others go after it first but then soon get bulging tummies and back off, then the others get their turn (pecking between the plecos who also seem to love this stuff). Specks of the mix fly off as they peck and swirls around the tank and this is eagely consumed by my rummy-nosed, golden, cardinal and red phantom tetras, my dwarf chain loaches, or my crew of about 10+ cories.

My Tiger Checkboard Turq is now massive and is 7" in size, my two Pigeons about 6.5" (one a male with a gorgeous streamer). My Leopard Snakeskin, who's colors blow me away almost every day, is at least 6"......and they are all getting bigger still. That said though my Red Golden Dragon is only about 4.5" growing just an inch in this time and has seemingly stopped growing and my Blue Diamond maybe about the same. Some just grow at different rates it seems even though all seem to get plenty of food. I do believe lineage has something to do with grown potential and speed too, at least according to Kenny of Kenny's Discus (where I got these) and I believe it.

Funny thing is in the beginning my Tiger Checkboard Turq was the smallest and most timid of all and frankly I did not think she'd make it! She has of course and now rules the tank and she lays eggs almost every week (she even won over the male pigeon from the female pigeon). She is now so big people gasp when she makes an appearance at the front of the tank.

Yes, it not easy for them to "graze" on the bottom since it's not a BB tank but the worms I feed sometimes zoom around the tank being blown by my Koralia 2 and many get stuck in the plants and hang from the leaves like little Xmas ornaments The discus move around and graze by plucking them here and there. Same thing.

Lastly, I only change the water 50% twice a week. Being so heavily planted the plants do indeed help keep the water cleaner and I also have two large canisters (Eheim 2028 and an XP3) chock full of media with lots of bennie bacteria doing it's thing too.