[Newbie] Opinions/Expert Views please

[RebelThunder]

hi, after being a lurker for some time now I am finally took the plunge and bought some discus. I learned a lot from the threads here for which I am grateful. I am just having a hard time determining if a fish is stunted or not. please comment on what you think of my fishes.( I know some of them are not the best of shapes. :) )

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i010.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i001.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i002.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i003.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i004.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i006.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Jai/CannonT1i009.jpg

the 2 red whites are around 1"-2", and the others are around 2.5"-3.5".thanks all in advance!

bests

Jai

[Sean Buehrle]

Im not an expert but I would say yes they are stunted, you should be able to fit 6 eyes vertically on thier head, some i would say will only accomidate 3-4. Dont give up on em, its good practice and youll know what not to buy next time. Buy from sponsers here, they have good fish. Good luck and welcome to simply discus.
If you have had them a short time and purchased locally, you might consider returning them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hedut]

That definitely not Red white cause red white isn't pigeon base.

[Cevoe]

They are not top notch discus but they are not the worst examples either.
They do not look stunted to me.
There is more to a fish being stunted than just the eye and there are plenty of full grown discus with big eyes.
It does not mean they are stunted. It means they have big eyes that detract from what the standard should be.
I think these have a shot at growing out to be half decent if you stick to a game plan.
How long have you had them, what are the particulars of your tank and how you are keeping them and did you worm them?
I also do not see any red whites in any of the pictures you posted.

[Keith Perkins]

I'm going to start with the worst, but it gets better. The last picture is a really ugly little pigeon blood. Okay, maybe not ugly, but heavily peppered. It may fade some as the fish gets more comfortable and grows out, but it's definitely not a good quality fish. I'm no strain expert, but the very first fish almost looks like it could be a snakeskin pigeon blood cross of some kind. Could be the black spots are just on the glass to though, it's somewhat hard to tell. The color markings on some of the blue fish are kind of cool. Their shape isn't the best, but they look fairly healthy. Eye to body ratio does look a bit off on a couple of them, but I've seen way worse. Hopefully you're happy with the price you paid for them and a couple of them grow out half way decent.

[RebelThunder]

thanks for all the input.

lol, thats what I thought so too. my friend told me the 2 smaller ones are red/white. I got them for $25 a piece and got the 2 smaller ones for free.

right now they are in a planted tank.no CO2.w/c 40% twice a day.food fbw, fdbw, frozen mysis, frozen brine shrimp, live red wigglers, flakes/pellets/granules(5-6x a day feeding). for some reason I cannot find beefheart here in our local groceries. I wanted to try feeding them beefheart mix.

temp is at 30C. I also put epsom salt every 3 days of water change. bad for the plants but this is their temporary tank. I am still cycling the 75g specifically for them.

I am still researching on the meds and deworming method. I read a couple of medicines but I haven't de-worm them yet.

some of them have their shapes really off. but I am doing my best on what I learned how to take care of them.specially juvies. In my opinion I think I would save in the long run I bought adults instead. :0

[Cevoe]

Sounds like you are on your way but I do not think you need to use epsom salt or any other salt at this point.
I have been using the de-worming flake food and reading up on the medicines like you said is a good idea.
Your idea about buying adults is a good one and they would do well in a planted 75.

[ZX10R]

You can see some of them have nice fat little bellys. I say keep power feeding them and update us on how they look in a few months. I don't think they look horrible plus it is very hard to tell what they will grow up to and look like at that size. When I look back at pics of some of my discus when I first bought them at 2" you would think they are stunted also but now some of those are pushing 6" now. Just keep feeding them and lots of clean water and see what happens good luck with them.

Sean

[richiethebing]

I have 5 young discus that dont look much if all beter than them.

[discuspaul]

They may not be the greatest, shape-wise, but they look reasonable, and the 2 in pic # 3 look very decent.
Follow the advice given here, give them the best conditions & nutrition you can, and you may be surprised at how well they could turn out.
All the best.

[RebelThunder]

update after 6 months.

they are around 4-5.5" and 2 of them decided not to grow up. well they grew up a bit.lol

please help ID also cause all I know is that I have 2 pigeon bloods.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0208.jpg

this one like being small.lol. around 3"
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0209.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0207.jpg

another little runt
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0210.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0205.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0206.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0204.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/Discus/DSC_0211.jpg

thanks!!!

[RebelThunder]

sorry for the crappy pics. I just use a phone cam. :)

[ZX10R]

Other then the runts I see a few that look pretty good the third pic and last look nice

[cjr8420]

my guess is pic 1 i pigeon blood mutt pic 2 and 3 tiger turk at thr bottom in pic 4 is a snake skin variety not sure on the last pic maybe a wild cross.hth

[Keith Perkins]

They look about like what I would have expected based on the pictures from six months ago. Looks like you've been treating them pretty well and some of them are growing out and filling in quite nicely. Too bad that one blue one is such a runt, I really like it's markings. Then there's that crappy little PB of six months ago, no surprise there.

[DLock3d]

You've really done a lot with what you've purchased. Well done...

[RebelThunder]

thanks for all the input. I was planning to cull the 2 runts but I guess I'll give them another 6 months and we will see.lol

[Keith Perkins]

I wouldn't necessarily cull them, okay maybe I would the PB. :) Seriously though if you think you might be adding more discus in your future, and you probably will even if you don't plan to now, the runts would be handy to have. After you've quarantined the new purchases you could add one of the runts to the QT as a sacrificial lamb to make sure the new fish aren't carrying anything to make the established fish sick.

[RebelThunder]

ok thanks I will keep that in mind. Planning to order more from a sponsor here: canadianaquafarms, maybe during the spring time.

[chiligum]

Some of them have turned out half decent, you did ok.;)
I wouldn't kill the runts just because they aren't the perfect Discus, if they are healthy and eating ok, leave them alone (they arn't taking up much space if they're stunted!)

[Squidman]

Nice job. I did the same thing with my first batch of fish. Just bought some randoms to see how I could do with them. They aren't prize winners I'm sure, but I like them and I gained alot of valuable knowledge. Regardless of the fish quality, it looks like you did a good job raising them.

[RebelThunder]

Updates of my fishes.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2840.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2839.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2838.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2835.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2834.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2841.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2842.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2825.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2824.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2815.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/RebelThunder/IMG_2814.jpg

Thanks for looking. Any idea how to intensify their colors? thanks

[RebelThunder]

Re-sized the pics. It was pretty big a while ago.

[Addictedtodiscus]

wow, so far from where you came from! great job i should say!

[Rick S]

You've done an amazing job with these considering what you started with. This only could have been accomplished with many large water changes. You're hard work is to be commended. Their colors look pretty good already, but if you would like there are many color enhancing foods out there.

Good Luck, Rick

[RebelThunder]

thanks guys. If there is anything I learned really important its the 50%-75% daily water change intervals. and variety of good food also.

[Skip]

keep the runts.. when you get new discus.. THEY can be the "volunteers" to get onto the qt to see if its ok to put new discus into existing tanks :)

[RebelThunder]

lol. poor guys. I might not be getting any new juvies anytime soon unless I find a good deal for 110 extra high gallon tanks nearby.

[Cevoe]

You should be real proud of the job you did with these fish.
Think what your next batch is going to look like with even better stock and the experience you've gained so far.

[RebelThunder]

thanks! just need a bigger tank before I venture into another batch of juvies. :)

[mmorris]

You've done an amazing job with these considering what you started with. This only could have been accomplished with many large water changes. You're hard work is to be commended. Their colors look pretty good already, but if you would like there are many color enhancing foods out there.

Good Luck, Rick
I second that. :)

[RebelThunder]

thanks!

[RebelThunder]

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