Better photos of new discus

[MaiaDee]

I was able to get much better pics of the discus I received Tuesday.
These were taken during one of today's feeding (so please ignore the flake on the floor of the tank :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/MaiaDeePhotography/20120727?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiQk5vk0ZDxQg

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Maia!

I think there's hope for a couple of those guys. They might not reach full size, but they have the potential to grow for you. The pale yellowish ones (hard to tell what strain they are) seem to be in the worst shape. Is there just one of them, or two? Either way, watch carefully for signs of internal parasites/flagellates.

Just feed 'em till their bellies are all round and bulging and see what happens. =)

[MaiaDee]

Hi Maia!

I think there's hope for a couple of those guys. They might not reach full size, but they have the potential to grow for you. The pale yellowish ones (hard to tell what strain they are) seem to be in the worst shape. Is there just one of them, or two? Either way, watch carefully for signs of internal parasites/flagellates.

Just feed 'em till their bellies are all round and bulging and see what happens. =)

Hi Toni!

I think there is hope too. Glad you agree :) The yellowish ones are actually cobalts, they are not photographing well. There are two of them. We've named them Ace and Deuce because I think they look like spades. Obviously they are not shaped well, seem to be very stunted. What symptoms would they present with parasites/flagellates?

Everyone is eating well. Gets better everyday. They LOVE the FDBW! I'm following the feeding schedule you sent and that's going really well. They seem to really like the frozen food as well, not such big fans of the flake or granules, but they do eat it.

Thanks again for all your help and your input here. :)

[DiscusDrew]

They are doing great if at this point they are readily open to a variety of foods, that's probably one of your best indicators of a discus' health. So, so far so good despite their shortcomings, which you can help to improve to a varying extent. There are a multitude of symptoms that can present themselves however the main things you should be on the lookout for on a daily basis...
- turning dark, usually this comes with being overly skittish and hiding
- white stringy or clear feces
- any unusual scratching or rubbing against objects in the tank
- eating lots but not putting on any weight
- not eating is always the biggest red flag, be careful to watch and make sure they are actually eating, not just biting and spitting it back out (all discus "spit" their food, hence "symphosodon", but make sure after they do they actually consume it)
- anything hanging from the gills or vent
- any spots, patches, pimples, or other abnormal markings on the body or fins

That's a start but basically learn the behavior of your discus, if you're paying attention they will let you know when something is wrong. Best of luck with the little guys and if you stay as open to advice and committed to their care as you have been then we will hopefully never have to discuss the things I listed above further in the disease section of the forum :). Toni plays the amazing role of helping people not have problems to begin with, I try to do my best to help the ones that don't heed her advice ;)

[MaiaDee]

Thanks, Drew. I also hope we never have to meet in the disease forum too :) I haven't seen any of the symptoms you listed. We do watch them closely when they eat (we watch them all time, to be honest), and have noticed the spit-then-eat game. Some of my community fish do that too, so it's good to know that's totally normal behavior. When their light when on this morning, they actually started demanding food immediately, "pacing" vertically up and down the side of the tank we approach from. Was great to see that!

You all have really given me a lot of confidence in caring for these guys. It seems like a ginormous waste of everyones' time to come here and ask for advise and then disregard it. I don't want to be that person :o

One more question; when should we start thinking about moving them to the 56g? They would look lost in there right now, but I don't want to make them stay in the 20g longer than healthy for them.

[BobDaniel]

One of the very first things I did when getting new fish was worm them. In the 1980's and 1990's almost every fish I bought had either tapeworm or capallaria. I mixed Panacur into my beefheart mix and kept the bottom of the tank clean. In 3 to 4 hours the dead worms would start being passed. I retreated again each month until no worms were passed by any fish in the hatchery.