Bringing up young fish

[skoom]

Dear Friends:

I have half a dozen 2-2.5" fish and was wondering what is the best food to feed them to ensure they will grow up big and colourful?

They are willing to eat tetra colour bits but was wondering if frozen beefheart/bloodworm is better? Which good should be the main component of their diet?

Many thanks.

skoom

[kevkoi]

The people who breed discus for a living do NOT use Colourbits. (Too bloody expensive to feed a farm of 6000-10000 fish!!). Most use a beefheart mix as staple.

[jim]

O man ~~~~
That's why sometimes it takes me months to train my new discus to eat colour bits...
breeders should feed their discus with dry foods sometimes for consumer's benifit..

[sunshinediscus]

Hi Skoom,

Feed variety in the diet as much as possible, most keepers feed beefheart/prawn mixes, bloodworms, brineshrimp and a good dry food like tetra bits and sera discus granules. Feed 4 times daily or more if possible so they grow fast and large.

Rod


www.lewisdiscus.com

[flukes]

Although you can have problems with desease, i once did a little test and feed one fish live foods with water changes everyday and another normal food and water changes every 3rd.

There was quiet a difference with size, although there is the risk of desease which i later came too the conclusion that its not worth it..

[sunshinediscus]

Although you can have problems with desease, i once did a little test and feed one fish live foods with water changes everyday and another normal food and water changes every 3rd.

There was quiet a difference with size, although there is the risk of desease which i later came too the conclusion that its not worth it..

To be fair Scott you can only alter one parameter at a time when conducting tests as you did. When 2 or more parameters are altered in the one test the results will be ambiguous at best. A fairer test could be too feed the different foods as you outlined but also perform the same water changes, even then some discrepancy's will happen as the different foods will have different feed conversion factors so extremly large water changes will need to be performed to ensure the same parameters are maintained in a consistent fashion and it is indeed the food that is being tested and not influenced by water conditions and other variables. Also there should be large test groups used as different discus can have different growth rates whereas with 2 large groups the inconsistant growth rates will be averaged out and fairer results will be shown.

Rod

[skoom]

I've had a little trial with live worms and i think it's a little too risk...especially since i'm no pro at the hobby.

I've heard that beefheart is the best to pump them up big and strong....since it's got lots of protein?

[kalebjarrod]

use beefheart as your staple but mix it around with brine and blood worms

make sure the beefheart has a good range of ingredients, make sure it has been ground down fine enough for young fish mouths. the beef heart should include tuna, garlic, spinach, AS A BAR MINIMUM. everyone has thier own diet's just check the threads

feed them as regularly as you can, do regular water changes. these are the easiest ways to get your fish to grow.

keep em feed, keep em clean and keep em happy :wink:

[skoom]

Thanks buddy.

But just wondering if the commercial discus food mix contains the above ingredients.

I understand that there is standard beef heart pre packaged foods and ones labelled discus.

tHANKS.

[kalebjarrod]

it may contain the ingrediants, check with your supplier

but making your own is so much more fun

mine love the homemade version, make it in bulk and frezze it

LOVELY.......................

[Trebs]

I found the 'discus dinner' to be pretty crappy. Best to make your own, you'll end up with less fat a crissle and it will be heaps cheaper to boot.