Discus size

[Josef]

Just for clarification - I beleive the questioned that was not answered for kaceyo was that two spotted types were bred and they produced small slow growing fish. I too bred two spotted type and I also got the same result.


So what we want to know is why?? The question is in particular to the spotted strain.

[Moon]

hi i feed my young only on ultimate beef heart from there very first feed and mine are the following
4 weeks 1" approx
8 weeks 2" bang on
11-12 weeks 3" as close as makes no difference
usually all sold out by then lol

im doing my best to get my foods over to the us and progressing very well time will tell lol

Are we talking about SL or TL?

[Josef]

This is a specialized Discus website. There has to be someone who can explain why two spotted Discus produce slow growing fry??

[Lt shinysides]

This is a specialized Discus website. There has to be someone who can explain why two spotted Discus produce slow growing fry??

Are the water changes frequent and stable with this batch of fry? Is the fry/growing on tank big enough as I am lead to believe that discus produce/excrete a hormone that can inhibit there growth in small tanks. There are so many reasons why that pair would produce slow grow young, maybe it's one of those things.

[bornlooser]

Well.. i think the slow growth is due to the fact that the spotted varieties are selected from a relatively small gene pool , hence too much inbreeding resulting in slow growing weak(?)fry.Also ,when you select for certain traits such as pattern ,color etc..if there is a weakness in line you inadvertently select that too..so the weakness is amplified too.....this is my thinking...i may be totally wrong.

[brianyam]

I agree. Inbreeding is basically what is going on when creating these new strains. When you inbreed, mutations happens. I don't think you can use a "one size" fits all for measuring all discus. They are all different, and some weird things will happen when they keep breeding within the same strains.

[ExReefer]

Well.. i think the slow growth is due to the fact that the spotted varieties are selected from a relatively small gene pool , hence too much inbreeding resulting in slow growing weak(?)fry.Also ,when you select for certain traits such as pattern ,color etc..if there is a weakness in line you inadvertently select that too..so the weakness is amplified too.....this is my thinking...i may be totally wrong.

I think you are onto something here. Some of these speciality strains are spawning at small sizes. I see it all the time on Simply and have experienced it myself. Some of my discus from Kenny have laid eggs at 4" to 4.5" and these fish had nearly full coloration at those sizes. Unless I was shipped fish that were already stunted (which I highly doubt), I think it has to do with what's being discussed in this thread. Some discus strains should be measured on a smaller scale and some strains grow slower than others. On the flip side, my German Piwowarski discus at 5" didn't not have full coloration and had no interest in spawning. It wasn't until they were over 6" and 18 months old that I saw them pair off. I believe it's because the Piwowarski strain of Red Turk and Cobalts is not a "specialty" or "designer" strain.

[Suzukirider98]

I live in Kokomo and am looking for a local Discus breeder to buy from. Do your Discus spawn and do you sell them if so I'd prefer to buy juvenile Discus sometimes they're cheaper to purchase. I also know of 2 pet store owners looking to buy full grown Discus. I'm also intersted in buying Angelfish or Flowerhorn Cichlids if you breed those or know of anyone who does. My email is suzukirider98@yahoo.com please contact me if you have any info or Discus I can purchase. I own 3 discus now and seem to have luck with caring for them so I'm trying to setup another aquarium and possibly even breeding some if I'm lucky enough to have a couple pair up and spawn. Thanks and any info would be helpful and appreciated.