how to know if your discus is stunted?

Hello again everyone, I was wondering how do you know if your discus is stunted or growing (slowly?). I have 6 of them all are healthy and eating. I feed them beefheart and brineshrimp/spirulina mix regularly as well as freezedried/live tubifex worms , blood worms, flakes, pellets on occasion. THey tend to eat everything but the flakes and pellets, guess that depends on their mood. I keep up with water changes, my parameters are 86 degrees, 0/0 for ammonia and nitrite, 10 nitrate, 50 hardness, 0 alk. I've already decided to treat for worms soon just incase thats it. The one thing that really sticks out for me is that they eat alot and I watch them often to check their poop but I never see them poop. I've only seen 1 guy poop and it was normal but that was weeks ago. They could be constipated but I'm not sure. If pics are needed of the guys, check the photo album they are all there (the checkerboard has since died though from a disease that killed many fish). Any advice would be much appreciated, sorry for the long post. You guys are the best in the biz here.

Thanks again, Dan

Stunting occurs due to bad water quality or over crowded tanks. What happens is the fish stresses and stops growing at the normal rate. The only way i know of identifying this is by looking at the eye. I can look at a fish and see if the eye is too big for the body. Depending on the breed of discus, the eye is suppose to fit 7 1/2 to 9 times along the stress line going through the head.

As Discus grow fastest at a young age, this is where the stunting is likely to happen.

ps. ive read different sizes with eyes fitting into the head. some say 5 or 6 others say more. BUt basically, the smaller the eye the better i guess.

Any other way other then the eyes? Or to insure they grow up to be big beasts?

their body is more likely to be longer then rounder and will not grow to a full size adult. Thats why we need to do frequent water changes. They give off these growth limiting hormones into the water and if you dont get rid of it, along with faul water from food then they will stunt. Somebody more experienced with stunting may have more information here so they may need to step in when they can. Sorry i cant be of any more assistence.

you want them to grow big?

good food, as often as possible, good water quality (lots of changes,) and lots of space, the bigger the tank, the better the water quality (better stability) the faster they grow.