Teaching discus where to go!!

[Mr Discus]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question...

I brought my 2 FOTU's last weekend, bringing my discus total to 4, in a 3ft setup (see my pics in the gallery).

My existing Red Turk and Cobalt are very well trained at finding where food is, I have a feeding cone at either end of the tank, as these 2 are a bit boisterous at feeding time, so the other is to service the needs of the 2 FOTU's.

Problem is, as soon as I put food at one end, the 2 older discus are onto it straight away. Thats cool. Then I put food at the other end in the second cone, to coax the FOTU's into feeding from that end. But the little buggers just follow the Turk and Cobalt when it is feeding time, as they obviously know to follow them to where food is.

Are there any tricks to getting new discus to figure out that there is food at the other end?

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers.

Josh.

[thabone]

Divide the tank for a while for them to learn to use the other feeding cone. ;)

[Mr Discus]

Good idea - but I can't really do that thabone, as my tank is completely planted with driftwood all over the place.

Dividing the tank would be totally last resort though, as it is a community tank, so its not just discus in there!

[the german]

discus are school fish and they will follow each other to the food,doesent matter what you do. when you go fishing sometimes you see a feeding frenzy and thats very similar to that,with only 4 fish i dont think there is a way to get them to feed from separate places

[Matt15]

Yeh Josh I have the exact same problem. They always gather at one cone, then once that ones finished they move to the second one.

[Mr Discus]

So if that is the case - then why do people recommend you get 2 cones if you have boisterous discus that chase off others from eating at the one cone?

It seems pointless to give that advice when they will always follow each other and not go to a secondary cone?

At the end of the day you end up having the boisterous and dominant discus getting 75% of the food directly from the cone, and the other 25% that they miss goes to the discus lower in the pecking order!

[the german]

different people have different opinions mate.
i dont like this feeding things at all,discus love to eat from the ground they blow water in the sand or on the glass :wink:
but there is no doubt that a discus is a schooling fish mate,and they follow each other,when some dont get enough food you may have to feed more.

[happygirl65]

Maybe you could put the cones closer together? Then they will see it's there...then slowly move it to the other side? Just a thought.

I have had this issue with my angelfish. Three are visibly larger than the others because they get the lions share of the food. What I do is put in flake first, let the dominant ones get their fill, wait a couple of minutes, then add more. The smaller ones are still hungry so they come faster at that point.

When I feed the frozen foods, I hold a small cube of with my fingers. The more timid ones trust me enough to eat from my fingers, the bigger angels would rather hang back and wait till some melt off and come floating by.

[Mr Discus]

Not a bad idea with the cones happygirl - I must admit I did have a similar idea but now that you have mentioned it I might try that. Every day I might move the cones another 5cm away from each other till they are at either end.

At the moment I am doing the same thing as you are, holding the frozen foods and I get the same results, the smaller ones are more eager to take it from me when I'm right at the tank, and the dominant discus are alot more timid when I am there. I am sure that will quickly change over time though.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[thabone]

Fishes have short memory. The idea of placing both cones toghether is a good one.

How about taking out the one where they feed for a while and then replacing it?

[Matt15]

I'm with german. I've used the cones alot, however just placing the black/blood worms straight in so they can eat off the floor is great.

The only times I use the cones is when there's abit of current in the tank. It just stops there food from getting sucked up in the filter thats all.

Your plan to start with the cones closer, then to seperate them Josh sounds like a good plan. Let us know how you go mate.