levels of care.

[April]

here are two discus...who were siblings....and were shipped at the same time to the same city with the same water. different care was given.
there are surely alot of factors. one being frequency of water changes...and possibly food..and also all different sizes of discus in one tank. and the smaller one only one or two were added each time to a group of bigger discus.
they are both one year old. they were all the same size when they arrived. I have 4...and this one i just adopted back. mine are breeding and have fry right now.
here are their pics.

[April]

Heres the one i just got back. he had fin erosion...and had flagellates. i have been treating him with metro and is now eating. hes still thin....been only one week now. but hes got his fins up now and seems quite lively.
hoping he will still grow a bit more. hes is about 4 inches. and his siblings are about 6 inches. hes now getting 80 percent water changes a day. and live worms and a bit of beefheart. hes still does not have a great appetite. these discus we got last may. so im sure its just the last while he got sick.
oh...they were in a 90 gallon tank and the person did stick to the 10 gallon per discus rule.
mine....were in a 33 gallon to grow out with huge daily changes but more than the 1 to 10 gallon rule.

[Carol_Roberts]

Excellent post, April. Was the little guy kept in a bare bottom tank like yours?

[April]

yes Carol. and he tried to care for them..but just the fact they were all different ages and not as many water changes i think was a big factor. and stress involved in older and younger fish togeather etc.

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, it's really best to keep all the same size and age together. At first I know I wanted one of this and two of that. Now I try to just raise siblings together.

[April]

I think also when people get fish from breeders...you have to look at alot of things. the care given once they leave the breeders hatchery can make or break a fish.
one person can get a fish..and another the same one and different circumstances different results.
ive seen this many times over as alot of times we;ve shared shipping and friends have gotten the same fish as me. and mine usually grow faster.
it can be the size of tank...amount of water changes..or food. or groupings also. how many the same size were bought.i used to buy 6. i find 8 is better or more .
i find bigger groups are more anxious to compete for food. but then your constantly feeding and the water changes have to be alot bigger.

April,
Water changes and proper diet makes or breaks them.

Miles ;D

Great thread Pril!...

I too have experienced the same. The 8 from Cary and 3 from Jeff Doty are all growing primarily at the same rate. The 11 are now seperated between 2 tanks and I find that the 6 GM's are more active than the other 5. I may have to move them to 55 (from a 75) to help them feel more at home. Or...... get more fish roughly of the same size. :P I was thinking of pulling 12 fry (now nearly 2 inches) and adding them to the 75. Probably not a good idea with the theory you mentioned above....

Julz

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

April
Good post
But you might want to get the bug off the fish in the first picture, oh never mind it probably has drowned by now.
Very nice fish
Dennis

[April]

LOL Dennis...ok.....if any bugs...could be dog fleas from hanging round the grooming shop.....lol. id say more like my glass needs polishing. hmmmmm.....ok then hows this pic.
for one of the siblings?

[April]

or heres one of the other siblings. ;D