Diet questions

[Dave+Amy]

I've had my Discus tank set up for about 5 months now and it's progressed into a well planted community tank with GBAs and cardinals and dwarf loaches.

Have been told contradicting info on which diet best suits Discus, wondering if anyone could clear it up for me.

Have recently introduced Discus to beef heart mix - but was told not to feed more than twice a week with beef heart because it's too fatty? And that I'm better to stick to feeding New Life Spectrum granules? Due to it being a more balanced diet?

Could someone shed some light on this please? :)

[rwel4809]

I feed beef heart mix twice a day everyday - look at the sticky 'ladyred's beef heart mix' in the nutrition section - It is a recipe developed by Merrilyn, a very experienced discus breeder and admin on this site... I have followed it and had fantastic results...

HTH R

[waitaki]

I used to feed beefheart twice a day everyday as well, but now I feed flakes and granules in the morning and beefheart in the evenings

[Hollowman]

Stendker fish are ONLY ever fed beefheart in their hatchery, you should see some of the fish we get here in the UK, they are HUGE.

There was some scaremongering a while back when Heiko Bleher made a statement about it being detremental to the fish, but there again, he only talks about wild fish.
Domestic fish are fine on BH, but I feed a varied diet of worms and frozen stuff, but never feed flake.

hth

H

[BigDaddyAdo]

Why no flake?

I feed flake and NLS once per day and frozen discus dinner twice a day. Frozen bloodies get thrown in once or twice a week. i also feed them a pea once every week or two.


Ado

[Dave+Amy]

so it is fine to feed beef heart daily? Yeah I've looked into that recipe - sounds expensive lol...I don't even get much sushi these days :lol:
also - what other veges do people feed their discus?

[Hollowman]

Hi Ado,

I have tried various flakes, but never seem to have much luck. I do feed a lot of various granular food which they do take well. Maybe I ought to persevere with some, let them get hungry for a few days and try it :wink:

H

[Dave+Amy]

my Discus don't respond to flake so I don't bother, just makes the water messy

[BigDaddyAdo]

Mine love Omega One Colour Flake. Its the only non frozen/fresh food that one of mine will eat.


Ado

[ILLUSN]

i still sware that home made beefheart is cheeper than any other comercial food even my expensive beefheart is only $40 a kg and tetrabits still cost well over $60/kg.

[Hollowman]

ILLUSN, I can buy an Ox heart for £4 how does that compare to how much you can get them for.
Some people think it is hard work making your own mix, but I quite enjoy the process, almost theraputic :wink:

H

[waitaki]

my discus love cyclop-eze wafer flakes - thank goodness, because none of the other fish like it and it cost $70 for the 100 gr tin :roll: :roll:
I have only started feeding it to them over the last 2 months, they also like the tetramin wafers. The trouble with the cyclop-eze is it floats so occasionally I hear a bit of splashing as one of the colony stirs it up :lol: they are happy enough to pick at it from the surface.

[Dave+Amy]

Ss mysis shrimp suitable to add into the ox heart mix? Brought 5 packets but DIscus don't eat the mysis shrimp on it's own and I don't want to waste it - thinking about using the blender and sneaking it into the mix.

Mine also love spirulina wafers - usually a fight over it between the GBAs and the Discus :lol:

[TW]

Yeah I've looked into that recipe - sounds expensive lol...I don't even get much sushi these daysIt seems a expensive up front, when you buy all the ingredients, but it makes such a lot.

I halved the recipe & froze it in zip lock bags (frozen flat & thin, for easy breakage into small feeding size pieces). Bag size = 15cm x 10cm. It made 65 bags :shock:

think I should have only made 1/4 of mix, as 65 bags will lost a long, long time.

Once you see how much it makes & calculate the cost over the amount of feeds you have just made, it really isn't so much cash after all. Plus, you know what's in it & that it's good for your discus.

[pink66]

I too was worried about just how much it would cost to make up a batch.. It has worked out costly to first get everything together, but the amount I have got will last me for ages.. in the long run, saving heaps and the fish really like it.. They always fight over who is going to eat it :lol: :lol:

below is a link to another post that shows where DIY kindly did the sums for us.. $2.94 per 100g

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=136282&highlight=#136282

[TW]

also - what other veges do people feed their discus?I don't feed them any extra, other than those already in the beef heart recipe. In addition to the vegies in the recipe, i added spinach & banana. Plus I doubled the amount of peas.

[Dave+Amy]

well I guess it would last longer if I rolled them into bags than using empty bloodworm packets...how much do people feed each time?
I know two cubes (using the bloodworm packet) lasts ages in my tank - but if I only put one in then not everyone gets to eat