feeding discus

[speedy]

Hi, i have 7 discus which i have had for about 6 months now, the only food that they will eat is frozen bloodworms and New Life Spectrum Discus Formula. I have tried to feed them beef heart and live food but they wont eat it. :? Is there anything that anyone can suggest?

[scott bowler]

speedy there is a number of things on the market you should try. beef heart is one of them ,if you dont want to make your own you can buy some that is premade discus dinner is one that you can try. i would try some tetrabits and or some of the breeders blend products the flake or the pellets, try some brine shrimp live and or some black worm dont over do it.with the frozen food try not to feed to much bloodworms .so as you can see there is a far bit on the market to give a go.just tey a little at a time and mix them up a bit .Good luck with it hope it all works out .
scott

[the german]

dont give them anything to eat for one day and then feed them beef heart first thing,they will eat it.brine shrimp are very good as well.

michael

[speedy]

Thanks heaps for your info greatly appreciated. :D

[fishguy2727]

If they are eating NLS they do not need anything else. That is all mine get and they are doing great on it. It is a truly complete diet and they will do best if it is the only thing being fed. It used to be that you had to vary the diet a lot, but with NLS that is no longer true.

How do you feed it to them? I put mine in a bowl in the bottom of the tank. I use an UGF riser tube with a funnel on top to put it right in the bowl. They come over to the bowl as soon as that tube hits the water. This helps keep the tank cleaner and makes it easier for them to find it, rather than just tossing it in and having it scatter and hoping they find it all.

[scott bowler]

fishguy although i respect your point of veiw i feel that the fish still need to have a mixed diet, it is true that dry foods like NLS have all the things that fish need for there health ,it is far better to have a mixture of foods that all do diffrent things .its like giving you weetbixs every day. it has every thing you will need but to eat it all the time isnt all that good for you balance mixture is far healther

[the german]

i second that scott

[samir]

they are doing great on it.

put some of your discus up in the critique section.

love the rest of your fish but all the discus look stunted. you probably need to add some beefheart to their diet

[fishguy2727]

The biggest one is about 6", smallest is about 4.5". So I do not think they are stunted at all. They are growing at a good pace.

They will do best when on only NLS. That shows that other foods are diluting the nutrition of NLS and if they do worse with those other foods, obviously not only do they not need them, but they shouldn't get it and it is worse to give them anything else.

We as humans are used to the most varied diet ever. If we get used to a highly varied diet, then yes, it would be boring to not have that variety. Which is why it is not a good analogy to fish.

The results are what I focus on, and the best results I have seen are when they are fed nothing but NLS. All the other stuff is theoretical and what makes sense and what doesn't, what really matters is what gets the best results.

Here (http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/reptileguy2727/?sc=1&multi=7) is a link to my Photobucket page. There are lots of pics of the discus, as well as other fish that are fed only NLS (note the peacocks).

[scott bowler]

fishguy im not saing that the product is bad just that the diet needs to be varied.i dont beleave they would do so wel just on one food. as for the size of your fish mate well see the plate that you have on the bottom of your tank? i have a lot of fish that size and i hve never just given them the same food all the time

[fishguy2727]

I have had these guys for less than a year. I know discus get bigger than mine, I am planning on it. That pasta bowl is about 9-10" around.

If 'variety' is providing a bunch of foods that hopefully provide a complete and proper diet, why is tossing them all into a blender, adding some supplements, and feeding them in the form of a pellet so bad? My point is that although diets high in beefheart are obviously not that bad, if something else provides better results, it can't be that bad either. Have you tried NLS before? If so, was it as the sole diet or part of a mix and how did it go? Do you breed discus?

[scott bowler]

fishguy yes i use NSL as part of there diet .they get it about 4 times a week ,yes i breed discus .i think it getting of track a little here i am but suggesting that for the best results with the fish it is better to mix the diet up so you cover all that they need to grow and be healthy .i thnk that there is a lot of good products on the market that cover all that they need to stay alive. but to keep the fish in the very best of health you need to give them a lot more .but that IMO

[Merrilyn]

The great thing about this forum, is that with the large member base we have here, you will always find differing opinions, and everyone is welcome to share their experiences.

I love the NLS product, especially the growth food, and find good results using it, but I use it as part of the diet. Now that's just my opinion. I've read a lot of the information on NLS and I know it's recommended to feed as a sole diet, but for my fish, I prefer to give them a mixed diet.

I'm glad to hear your fish are doing so well on NLS fishguy. It is a very good food, but at the end of the day, each person is going to make up their own mind on what to feed their fish.

Now back to the topic.

Speedy if your fish are doing well on their current diet, and you're happy with their growth, I see no need to try to change. By all means add some live brine shrimp every now and then as a treat, but what you're doing sounds fine to me.

[speedy]

Thanks for all of your info. I feel that i wouldn't like to eat the same food every day so i like to vary my fish's food. My fish are growing at a healthy rate but i went to my LFS on the weekend and they had a pair of blue diamonds for sale that were massive i fell in love but couldnd afford the $450 price tag. Hopefully my 2 blue dimonds will get to that size. On the topic of live brine shrimp last time i gave them that the wouldnt eat them they would shy away from them not sure what that means? :?

Tank size 48"24"18"
2 Blue diamonds
1 Snake skin
4 yellow melons
2 rams
4 rummy nose tetras

[elphenomenon]

damn
i just bought that new life discus spectrum thingy and my discus would not touch it. beef heart seems like the only thing they will eat. try starving them of beef heart for a few days but they still wouldn't eat the spectrum food. there goes 18 bucks

[Merrilyn]

It often takes fish a while to get used to a new food, but here's a suggestion you could try. Put your frozen beefheart on a saucer to thaw and add some of the NSL pellets to it.

As the beefheart thaws, the dry food will soak up some of the meat juice and take on the flavour, as well as softening the pellet.

Gradually you add more pellets and less beefheart, till they accept soaked pellets without any beefheart flavour. The last step is to add the pellets to the tank dry, and the fish should accept the now familiar taste despite the pellet being a different texture.

It's all about being smarter than the fish :wink:

[elphenomenon]

i see. thanks for the advice.
will let u know who wins. me or the discus!