New discus

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dovii84

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 9, 2005
177
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Chicago
Hey my wife and I went to our lfs and got this discus for $15 it's about 3" beautiful snakeskin deep red background with blue thin stripes it had gill curl and my wife said it was due to shipping and it breathing so hard. She said it will bounce back is this true? Here's a pic of the fish.

416ff280.jpg
 
coloring and pattern looks awesome.

and yes, girl curl is possible to cure by having great water conditions.

However, just to be honest, the discus is pretty stunted. It will most likely stay around that size... maybe 4inch if well cared for (depending on how old).
You can tell by the very large eye, relative to the body.

But hey, $15 for that guy is not bad at all, especially when fry go for that same price.

kepp us updated with pics
 
Yeah, it's a stunted snakeskin. Looks like it's had a very hard life. But if you like it, then that's all that matters. I hope it eats for you, it looks very skinny.
 
Thanks guys. It started eating tubifex worms already. Is it stunted? Is there something I can compare it to?
 
Discus_fish.jpg


here's how small the discus' eyes should be relative to the body. You notice that this is a very large discus.
Your's eye pretty much takes up the majority of it's face.

Well, as long as its eating thats good.
I'd try to feed it more healthy food than tubifex worms. but it does look skinny, so I'd go for 4 meals a day with yours. try beef heart.

There's no greater feeling than when you raise a poor fish to becoming a great fish.
 
Aww thank you jd! Well we just got him yesterday and to be quite honest we thought it was a just a baby but I guess not? But yea I started it on tubifex worms just so that it can eat. But I will be giving him a variety of foods and hopefully he's not stunted and grow but I'll keep you guys updated. What's the growth rate of discus? So I know what to look for if he is stunted? And also will it still be able to breed if it is stunted?
 
Stunted fish can breed. The thing is, they don't grow very much more, if at all. It's critical that a young discus grow as much as possible in the first 6 to 8 months of it's life. The growth period slows until it stops at a certain point. If the growth of the fish has not reached a normal size when the growth period stops, then the fish has grown about all it's going too. A stunted fish will continue to develop adult coloration and sexual maturity, and the eyes continue to grow normally, but the body does not keep up . This is why stunted fish have giant eyes in relation to body size. Your fish shows a lot of adult coloration, has a football shape with a pointed head instead of being rounded, and eyes that are huge compared to body size. All this says the fish is a lot older than it's size would dictate, and stunted. Normal shape and growth for a young adult looks like this... Hope this helps.

DSC_0196.JPG
 
hillbilly made a good point. young 3" discus wouldnt have full coloration, nor be as detail as your discus is.

Ive raised two stunted discus when i first started. One grew up and caught up to speed. (put remained small, relative to others 4'').
the other (blue diamond) stayed stunted (3").

Growth rate?
but 1/2 inch or so a month would be great. sometimes more, sometimes less. depends on genetics, feeding, and wc.

but dont be alarmed if your guy doesnt grow much (if any).

there's nothing wrong with stunted discus... just think of it like... instead of having one giant 6" discus, you can have 2 three inch discus! haha
jk
 
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