Fantastic post Niko, I have not looked at the videos yet, will do that when I get back, but great to see all the stages so far, thank you for posting. Best of luck with the project.

I need to find some recent pictures of my Discus as now they are started to colour up. I bought them at around 2.5cm in size and now at least some of them has grown to three times as much. They are fed nearly 5 times a day with water changes and cleaning every 4 days. Unfortunately, I had setup the tank with gravel but since I clean regularly I can manage to keep it clean as much as possible.

thats a lot of discus for 150L tank. i suppose because are so small at the moment is not that bad but when they'll grow you'll have to sell lots of them. the rule is 1 adult discus per 50L so in your tank would be left just 3 maybe 4 discus especially if you want to put some other fish with them. cheers

Yes you are right they should be in a bigger tank. In two months time I have a 400 litre tank ordered which will house some of them. Although, I am very attentive to keep the water conditions clean as much as possible as having 17 (two died - being the smallest of the whole) Discus in such a small space is not enough. I have enough tanks to place them in case things get out of hand but for the time being they are used for other fish such as my salvini which are too aggressive for them.

Some updates:

2 month old picture...



1 month old picture...



Some more recent shots...

I hope you take this in the right context Niko as it is truly meant in the bests interests..

some of those fry are never going to make their fiull potential and i would place a bet that they will not reach a decent size. body shape and eye size are always a good indicator.

how many times a day are you feeding your fry? (small discus need at least 5 times a day due to their high metabolism)

i have attached a pics for a good size and shape indicator for fry at around the age im guessing your fish are at..

high protein diets and spotless water quality are an absolute must for fry.. bare bottom tanks are quiet literally a must to get your babies growing to a size that discus should be... 17-20 cm is a good size to aim for in an adult..

hope you find this useful

Adam

Half of the Discus that I have will not make it to that size as I have some which are 6 times larger than the others. Once I have the second tank by end of next month, the larger ones will be moved into this tank (there are six of them).

As to feeding regime, they are fed 5 times a day with a varied diet ranging from beefheart, microworms and other cichlid frozen food. They are supplemented by Tetra, and Ocean Nutrition food.

I carry out a weekly water change of around 30% and tank is heated at 30 degrees. As to the barebottom I completely agree but had no choice...one reason is that the fry were sold quite cheap...less than a guppy!! so I was sure that in selecting such a large number would cause such growth problems.

Good post.

Best of luck with the tank!

glad you didnt take it the wrong way

Why take it the wrong way...this is why forums are for...to discuss and learn. Thanks for the suggestions. When you said diet rich in proteins...do you use beefheart or dry food to supplement the diet? Secondly, why do you think that some remain small as compared to their siblings when considering they are in the same tank, eating the same kind of food etc.