fussy young discus

[Flip03]

I bought 2 young discus a few weeks ago i went to the lfs to get them some food as this is my first attempt at looking after discus. I bought New life spectrum discus formula, freeze dried australian black worms, live black worms and i have frozen blood worms for my other tanks. The only thing i can get the little buggers to eat is the blood worms, Ive tried giving them 2 types of food 2x a day for a round 3-4 days to get them to eat if the dont eat i give them some blood worms so they get a feed. Im not worried about there condition as they are looking very heathy and swimming round lots i just dont think there getting enough nutrition. Can i get some ideas on what to do next thanks.

Flip03

[dandaman352]

I had the same problem, where they only ate the frozen blood worms and nothing else. If you want them to eat something new, just starve them for a day or 2 and feed them the food you want them to eat. Eventually 1 will bite and the other will follow. Or you can buy new discus that eat everything and they will follow that discus to eating it. (monkey see monkey do). Either one should work.

[Flip03]

thanks dandaman ill give it a go. Can anyone also tell me if the new life spectrum discus fomula is a good food the lfs said its the best? but i dont no i wanted tetra bits but they didnt have any

[Merrilyn]

Spectrum discus formula is a good food, but the pellets are pretty hard, and it took my fish a while to get used to it.

Dry food of course is only part of the answer. A varied diet is what they need. Try soaking some of the dry food or the freeze dried blackworms with the frozen bloodworms in a little tank water before you add the food to the tank. It just may trick the fussy little babies into eating everything.

Sometimes a school of tetras in the tank will encourage them to eat too. They see the tetras eat, and think they're missing out on something good.

Frequent water changes and a temp of around 30 will also help babies to grow.

[ILLUSN]

Sometimes a school of tetras in the tank will encourage them to eat too. They see the tetras eat, and think they're missing out on something good.


Adding a school of glow lites got my new fussy heckels eating withing 48hrs.

bonus is as the fish get bigger they have some nice clean live food to snack on inbetween meals :)

[Barry N]

Yum yum, Glo Lites - one of the five major food groups for discus :lol:

Joking of course, but don't they love em when the discus get bigger!

[Flip03]

Thanks heaps for the info theres some great ideas that i am going to try. I have been running my tank at 29 degrees and ive got 10 neons that i no shouldnt be in that warmer water but they get a bit of a frenzy going at feeding time, my discus just swim up to the food and then watch it fall. what i have done is let them go hungry for 24 hrs fed them the spectrum and they still wernt interested so ive let them go another 24 hrs if the dont eat tonight ill top them up with blood worms.