Grow out question

[jiayaw]

Hi everyone,

I've been keeping fish for many years and have been really successful with angels and rams and now want to venture into keeping discus. I just have a question regarding a grow out setup that I am planning to have.

My plan is to grow out 6 juvenile discus in a 33 gallon barebottom tank. Feed them 3 times a day and do daily 50%-75% water change and once they grow to about 4inches or so, have them moved into my current 75 gal planted tank, and there I will do 50% WC 3x a week.

I just want to confirm with you experts on whether or not the discus would be ok in the 33 as long as I do the water change religiously until they are about 4in.

Thanks!

[TURQ64]

The tank and plan will work just fine..Good luck..I'd keep up the wc's in the 75 until they are bigger than 4"..That's my opinion, maybe an 'expert' will have a different say..Gary

[rebus20]

I have been growing mine out in a 20gal. I do 5 water changes a week and keep the temp at 86 but I feed them a 6-8 times a day and they have had excellent growth. Im just starting with discus myself, maybe 4 months now but I am happy with how much they have grown.

[Bill63SG]

I've had good luck using a 75bb as a grow-out.IMO,IME,a planted 75 with gravel is going to be a little rough,at 4" they've still got growing to do.What are the dims of the 33.Is it the same as a 40L or a 55?

[TURQ64]

The tank and plan will work just fine..Good luck..I'd keep up the wc's in the 75 until they are bigger than 4"..That's my opinion, maybe an 'expert' will have a different say..Gary
maybe I didn't make myself clear...with the fish growing out in the 33, I'd still be doing healthy wc's on their future home until they are bigger, and have to live there..

[jiayaw]

the dimension is a regular 3 footer.

I've had good luck using a 75bb as a grow-out.IMO,IME,a planted 75 with gravel is going to be a little rough,at 4" they've still got growing to do.What are the dims of the 33.Is it the same as a 40L or a 55?

[jiayaw]

Thanks, right now for the future home, I am doing 50% weekly water changes, but as time gets near when I move the discus into the planted 75gal tank, I will do a few water changes consecutively to makes sure the tank is nice and friendly for the discus

maybe I didn't make myself clear...with the fish growing out in the 33, I'd still be doing healthy wc's on their future home until they are bigger, and have to live there..

[LizStreithorst]

Your plan sounds good to me. If you can raise rams, you can raise Discus. Rams are the more sensitive of the two fish.

[Bill63SG]

If you could,I'd try and go with a bigger tank,6 juvies would be fine in a 55 for growing out,but you work with what you've got.And even at 4",once thier in the 75,your still going to want to do daily,and least every other day water changes of 50%+.Most around here do 75%+ on thier grow outs.That is ideal.But do what your able to do,you just won't get optimal results.Still dosen't mean you won't have fun and have fish you enjoy.

[Bill63SG]

Your plan sounds good to me. If you can raise rams, you can raise Discus. Rams are the more sensitive of the two fish.I missed that at the begining,I was treating you like a straight up noobie.Take the advice and use what you want.

[happyfish1012]

i hope you will be sucessfull

[jiayaw]

thanks everyone for your help! I will definitely keep everyone posted about the discus.

[Bud Smith]

Hi everyone,

I've been keeping fish for many years and have been really successful with angels and rams and now want to venture into keeping discus. I just have a question regarding a grow out setup that I am planning to have.

My plan is to grow out 6 juvenile discus in a 33 gallon barebottom tank. Feed them 3 times a day and do daily 50%-75% water change and once they grow to about 4inches or so, have them moved into my current 75 gal planted tank, and there I will do 50% WC 3x a week.

I just want to confirm with you experts on whether or not the discus would be ok in the 33 as long as I do the water change religiously until they are about 4in.

Thanks!

Your plan is sound - the 33 gal. is fine with your water change regiment and good nutritional diet
Your plan is almost exactly what I do except I do daily 50% water changes in my 75 gal. BB with wood with 7 discus
They are doing fine with good growth rate - mine have grown from 3 inches to 4.5 to 5 inches in about 2 months

[jiayaw]

Picked up 6 juvenile discus from Rick (Canadian Aquafarm) last week... and here are some photos that I took of the fishes... they are looking awesome
two Alenquers (3in)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/383151_10151104877150691_502400690_22540827_868244 299_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/383095_10151104697345691_502400690_22539720_130337 2564_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/393699_10151104697290691_502400690_22539719_846601 175_n.jpg

Two Pigeons (2.5in)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396372_10151104713360691_502400690_22539765_105518 7193_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395851_10151104713090691_502400690_22539761_141280 1434_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/383917_10151096108600691_502400690_22484477_433516 501_n.jpg

Two Forrest Giant Blues (2in)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/377435_10151104696690691_502400690_22539713_712706 993_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408848_10151104696790691_502400690_22539714_164873 7811_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407969_10151104696910691_502400690_22539715_194479 7601_n.jpg

Hopefully I will be able to grow these guys out into great looking adults... with 80% daily water changes and feeding 4-5 times daily

[chiligum]

If you can do more feedings than 4-5 it would be good as long as the water quality is ok...Love the 1st 3 pics the most, and those giant Blues have got loads of colour already, good luck!

[lipadj46]

Is it just me or does that first one have hith?

[PAR23]

As stated above, I would also try to feed them at least 6x a day. My juvies are fed 8x a day........90% daily WC and sometimes twice a day if I'm free.

[Chicago Discus]

Is it just me or does that first one have hith? oh thought the same thing but just didn't say anything it could be the photo..............Josie

[jiayaw]

I sure hope it's not, otherwise all 6 of them have hith =S... in person, the pores don't look eroded or enlarged, I just thought they were sensory nares that were normal. I see pores like that on my angelfish and bolivian rams in my other tank as well.

Is it just me or does that first one have hith?

[judy]

I'm looking above the eye and seeing... well, something...

[jiayaw]

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll definitely pay attention to the fishes and see if there is something wrong with them.

I'm looking above the eye and seeing... well, something...

[chaoslite]

Sad to make this comment, but I am PRO at getting hith, make that was. It looks exactly like what my fish had. Keep up the water changes. You can try soaking whatever you are feeding them in liquid baby vitamins. A trick I learned from Eddie. HTH

Mishka

[Chicago Discus]

Sad to make this comment, but I am PRO at getting hith, make that was. It looks exactly like what my fish had. Keep up the water changes. You can try soaking whatever you are feeding them in liquid baby vitamins. A trick I learned from Eddie. HTH

Mishka
+1 this is absolutely right there is a direct link to hole in the head to vitamin deficency ..............Josie

[PAR23]

Sad to make this comment, but I am PRO at getting hith, make that was. It looks exactly like what my fish had. Keep up the water changes. You can try soaking whatever you are feeding them in liquid baby vitamins. A trick I learned from Eddie. HTH

Mishka

Did you find that to be an effective treatment? No one knows for sure why discus develop HITH. Many theories out there.

[Chicago Discus]

Did you find that to be an effective treatment? No one knows for sure why discus develop HITH. Many theories out there.

Ok just my opinion because people get a little crazy on this forum. HITH can be caused by many things like new environment, lack of clean water, ect... And I agree there are many theories on this disease but my recommendation would be to remove the carbon and add some kind of vitamins to there diet. Lack of calcium, phosphorous and vitamins A C D Can be a major factor in the Health and well being of your fish. My 2 cents .............Josie

[PAR23]

Ok just my opinion because people get a little crazy on this forum. HITH can be caused by many things like new environment, lack of clean water, ect... And I agree there are many theories on this disease but my recommendation would be to remove the carbon and add some kind of vitamins to there diet. Lack of calcium, phosphorous and vitamins A C D Can be a major factor in the Health and well being of your fish. My 2 cents .............Josie

I have read about the vit deficiency theory and what does not make sense to me is if they are fed high quality flakes and pellets, they should receive more than their daily vit requirement. Despite feeding top rated food, they still get HITH.

[Chicago Discus]

I have read about the vit deficiency theory and what does not make sense to me is if they are fed high quality flakes and pellets, they should receive more than their daily vit requirement. Despite feeding top rated food, they still get HITH.

In my opinion only.... to much of anything is never a good thing more variety and options are much better. Back ground> years ago I had a ram with HITH and started doing research on the causes, I fed great quality food and kept my water changes up and couldn't understand where the heck this stuff was coming from or causing the problem with my ram. I went to My aunt who was a scientist a bio-chemist working for a major food company and told her about my problem and she started doing research on it. She stated to me that the food I was feeding my fish was great but I needed more of a variety and couldn't for the life of me understand what she was talking about but her being much smarter than me LOL I took her advice and started offering different foods to the ram and sure enough the fish started getting better..........just my opinion..........Josie

[jiayaw]

i got these discus from Rick (Canadian Aquafarm) last thursday and have been feeding them in the morning... Alternating between hikari bloodworms with fortified vitamins, san fransico bay spirulia brine shrimp, or freshwater frenzy in the morning. Then the automatic feeder feeds two meals of pellets (mix of nls cichlid and nls grow pellets), and at night before an 80% water change, I feed PE mysis shrimps. So I believe I already am feeding them a nicely balanced, varied nutritional meal daily along with a large daily water change (plus I siphon out all leftover food whenever i feed any frozen food after 30 min as the discus tend to like to graze a while for food). Hopefully over time, if they in fact really do have HITH, they will heal, or even better, just hope that they don't actually have the disease

Thanks everyone for your opinion, and HITH or not, I will keep up with my water changes and feeding them a nutritional but varied meals.

Also the filtration I am using includes a sponge filter and an aquaclear 70 loaded with a sponge and 1 litre of seachem matrix, no carbon.

So far, all of the discus are eating and their feces are not stringy white either, so I wouldn't think it was hex that was causing this.

Will definitely keep everyone posted on this! And any suggestions to minimize chance for the discus to get HITH or to help them recover from it are always welcomed!

Thanks!

[YSS]

Really like the alenquers. Good luck!

[PleiadesSTi]

Not trying to bash your fish and I may be totally wrong, but do these Discus look stunted?

[jimg]

I have read about the vit deficiency theory and what does not make sense to me is if they are fed high quality flakes and pellets, they should receive more than their daily vit requirement. Despite feeding top rated food, they still get HITH.+1 imo not food/vitamin related

[Chicago Discus]

+1 imo not food/vitamin related ok then what causes HITH

[jimg]

My thoughts are either something in the water mineral salts, heavy metals etc. that effect their flesh or external bacteria or protists. As Peter mentioned, many serious discus keepers feed their discus better than their kids and still have gotten hith including a tank of my own discus a while back

[Chicago Discus]

My thoughts are either something in the water mineral salts, heavy metals etc. that effect their flesh or external bacteria or protists. As Peter mentioned, many serious discus keepers feed their discus better than their kids and still have gotten hith including a tank of my own discus a while back
Thanks Jim that's something to think about...............Josie

[PAR23]

Jim and I have discussed and beat this question to death. I feed my fish BH mix from Al, ON PR Flake, ON small pellets, Tetrabits, FDBW from AL, Super BH flake from Bill and Ken's BH flakes......how's that for well balanced diet and I perform daily 90% WC on ALL of my tanks....water so clean one can drink out of it and I have on occasion......With all this still had a few develop HITH. I even treated them with metro. All this leads me to think food/vit are not main cause of HITH.

I don't know what causes HITH, no one does hence my prior statement.

[jimg]

Jim and I have discussed and beat this question to death. I feed my fish BH mix from Al, ON PR Flake, ON small pellets, Tetrabits, FDBW from AL, Super BH flake from Bill and Ken's BH flakes......how's that for well balanced diet and I perform daily 90% WC on ALL of my tanks....water so clean one can drink out of it and I have on occasion......With all this still had a few develop HITH. I even treated them with metro. All this leads me to think food/vit are not main cause of HITH.

I don't know what causes HITH, no one does hence my prior statement.Ha! just after we were getting headaches trying to figure it I went to Als and we did the same thing!

[Chicago Discus]

You guys are probably right when my aunt told me to change up the food and he cleared up the light bulb in my little head went off ......LOL

[jimg]

You guys are probably right when my aunt told me to change up the food and he cleared up the light bulb in my little head went off ......LOLfunny thing is some people have added vitamins to the food and it supposedly cleared. i think their systems healed it themselves and the vitamins took the credit!

[PAR23]

funny thing is some people have added vitamins to the food and it supposedly cleared. i think their systems healed it themselves and the vitamins took the credit!

+1. True True unrelated

[PAR23]

Ha! just after we were getting headaches trying to figure it I went to Als and we did the same thing!

This is why this hobby is so much fun...

[chiligum]

It is so true about the foods not being to blame...How many people have kept Cichlids and even normal tropicals and just throw normal flake food in for them day after day without a single change and never a single problem?
I spend as much money on different types of supposedly the best stuff you can buy than i spend down the pub having a few beers!
I haven't a clue why it does affect certain fish but i would put my house on it that it isn't vitamin related.