young discus

[thirao21]

i'm new to keeping discus and i got my first discus about 5 or 6 months ago and they're about 3-4.5 inches now... i was wondering if they look ok and are developing like they should.... here's a pic

[the german]

welcome to the forum thirao21
there eyes are a bit to big for the size of the body.
the problem with gravel and plants in discus tanks is that you cant overfeed them :D like many of us here,with the bare bottom you can clean leftover food up every day with gravel it is a problem.
you have a nice group of discus there.

michael

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum thirao21. You've got a lovely assortment of young fish there. Lovely varieties.

Their growth rate is perhaps a little behind what it should be, so increase the number of feeds per day, and increase your water changes, and you should see quite a growth spurt.

[thirao21]

how much should i feed them? they seem to like bloodworms the best and i feed them about 2 cubes per feeding and they gobble them up pretty fast... about 2-3 min

[the german]

they need some beef heart,i wuod say feed them 3 times a day,
1 time beef heart 1 time bloodworm 1 time brine shrimp.

you can feed more often but then you must change the water more often.
you should keep an eye on your water parameters like nitrit nitrate amonia,when one of them go over the norm change water.
when you do that you can feed more and the results you will see on your fish soon.

michael

[Merrilyn]

Yeah, bloodworms are good, but not enough in them to use as a single food.

See if you can get them to eat some good quality dry food, either flake or pellets, and some beefheart mix, and maybe some brine shrimp. All those things are high in protein and will help with the growth of your babies.

Feeding them 4 or 5 times a day will help too. Try offering the dry food first thing, in the morning, when they are hungry, but don't be surprised if it takes them a couple of weeks to accept the new foods.

[samir]

i think you may have a slight bacterial infection in one of the blue diamonds, the snakeskin in the bottom right corner has a problem too. some of them are a bit behind on growth. For a first time discus keeper I think you've done a better job than most, myself included.

[thirao21]

i've kept other fish for years now, but first time with discus
as far as the water goes ammonia... always 0 nitrates always 0 and nitrates 10-15 temp is about 86.5-86.8

they eat some beefheart but not too much.. i guess they don't like it all that well.....and they've been eating omega one flakes once a day

and about the bacterial infection.. is there anything i can use to cure/prevent it? i'd rather use something that's not going to kill off my nitrifying bactera...

thanks to everyone for the info and commets

[thirao21]

here's a closer look at the blue diamonds to see if they have an infection

and they're not bloated they just ate a lot...