Hi Charles, At 8 months my Curipera Royals are 11-12 cm in size. Andrew's Madeira Merahs are even a little bigger. It has become very obvious to us that the growth of these fishes is very much better than other discus that are not parasite free. I will see when I can find the time in the next week to take some pictures and post them. They are all developing beautiful colours, and should grow out into magnificent fishes. Kind regards, Dirk
Are they bigger because they are parasite free or because you paid closer attention to them when they were really tiny? With my N. furzeri, unless you really spoil them with food and clean water in the first two weeks they never catch up with those who got proper care.
Hi Tyrone, No, they grow better because they are parasite free. I have fed youngsters that were not parasite free, in exactly the same way, and they just simply don't grow nearly as well. When I was in Germany early in February I visited Gerhard Rahn, who developed this approach and his adult fishes are simply the largest that I have ever seen. If you eliminate the flagellates that are infecting the gut all the time, then the gut absorbs food better and therefore you get better growth rates and the fish grow out bigger. Once you see the huge numbers of flagellates that can infect the gut lining, it becomes very obvious why elimination of these parasites makes the major differences. Gerhard had taken videos of these flagellates under the microscope and then it is obvious how bad these flagellates are for the gut. There are literally millions of these in the gut of infected fishes. Parasite free also means that all gill flukes and worms in the gut are eliminated which again just allow the fishes to grow better. One of the biggest differences that I have noticed in the poop that these fishes produce. It is brown and solid and never white and stringy as it is so often is in non-parasite free discus. I now want to raise some of my angels so that they are parasite free and then I can add these to my discus as well, without any problems. Kind regards, Dirk
lol, on the topic of parasite free, is it worth it or feasible to breed p f ancistrus ? I guess that would mean they would have to live a life on their own and not in a community tank so does not make much sense Perhaps they could be raised faster..?
Parasite burdens in the wild tend to be much lower than in captivity. Seen a wild fish covered in white spot? What about velvet?
