growth

[rerdragon1977]

What is considered normal growth for discus?

[ericatdallas]

Depends on their starting size.

[rerdragon1977]

I got them at about 2 inches a month ago. They are 2.5 ish now

[ericatdallas]

Yeah, that's a little on the slow side. Take some pics... what are you feeding them? I would have expected them to grow an inch at this point after a month.

[rerdragon1977]

http://IMG_0257.jpg

Its a beefheart/seafood mix 3X a day and treats of FBW and Black worms. They are in a planted aquarium and were not eating during the first week. Eating well now.

Sorry about the Bad i phone pic.

[ericatdallas]

WC schedule? Tank temp? Can't see the pic btw...

[kaceyo]

Considering they hadn't eaten for a week, 1/2" is about right. WC's make just as much difference on growth as food and frequency of feedings so don't skimp on them.
You can expect around 1"/month +/- for the first 3 to 3.5 months if all is going well, then it gradually drops off as they get older.

[rerdragon1977]

sounds good to me. im doing 25% daily water changes and the tank is heavily planted. Not sure why the pics arent comming throughhttp://C:\Documents and Settings\jxs396\Desktop\Aquarium\IMG_0250.jpg

[Sean Buehrle]

Put your pics on photobucket then select the img selection on there copy the img url and paste on the post here.

[strawberryblonde]

You might want to think about upping the water changes and possibly increasing the feedings. My discus were 4" when I got them and I was doing 5-6 feedings a day (basically whenever I passed by the tank). I did 2 WC a day, 60% and 80%.

They grew an inch in one month. I've had them for 2 months (tomorrow...wheeeee) and they now range in size from 4 1/4 to 5 3/4. So you can get some very impressive growth with just lots of clean water every day and plenty of food. Ohhhh, forgot to mention that I feed mostly flake food! They do also get Al's freeze dried blackworms and an occasional treat of homemade beefheart.

[ericatdallas]

Yeah, I had 1" discus grow about 1"/month until around 4" too... I did two 33% WC when they were smaller and switched to one massive 60-80% one when they got bigger. Based on recommendation of other members, I switched to a daily 85-90% WC (they said 100% but I'm not ready for that yet). I also fed them 8 small meals a day, about every 2 hours during the waking hours with an 8 hour fast (through the night).

if you can't feed them that often, get an autofeeder. I think a lot of the autofeeders have 4 time settings and I put mine during the work day (so at 10a, 12p, 2p, 4p). HQ dried foods is key in those. Then I would feed them BH for the feedings I could handle, 7:30a, 6p, 8p, 10p.

This may be more than is necessary, but I made sure to adjust the serving size appropriately. The AM feedings were more sparing than the PM because I knew it would be longer before a WC was possible, so I fed them enough that they would for sure eat all of it.

It is better to switch to BB. I had a planted and found the discus don't grow as fast in a planted tank even with heavy feedings (I did two 50% WC a day) in my planted tank. I know that's not always possible or desireable though, but feeding and WC is even more critical in a planted tank.

If possible, I don't know how big your tank is, but I would divide them to one side that way you can quickly siphon out the uneaten food and they don't spread out. I noticed my 6 juveniles (1.5-2") would hide all over the tank and wouldn't come out to eat. I think the lights also kind of hurt this.