Feeding Basket ... ok to use?

[Goerge_of_the_Jungle]

Hi DF'ers,

Just wondering, George (my discus) always spits some food out when he eats from the feeder i have for him. Just wondering, is this normal or do you think he is spitting out every mouthfull he gobbles?

He doesnt spit out Brin Shrimp unless their to big for him (he is a bit of a guts when it comes to live brine shrimp), but he always seems to spit out frozen blood worms from the feeder .... i hope its jst a case of him getting to much in his mouth.

Cheers for the assistance!

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa42/kaoz131/SDC10384.jpg

[pink66]

Well, hello George-of-the-Jungle.

mmm...... don't worry about your little fella spitting out his food.. mine eat a b/h mix and spend the first 10 minutes picking at the block and spitting it all out.. then the next 10 minutes wandering around the tank picking it all up and eating it..

Discus are natural pickers.. which is nothing like my africans.. it seems they have already eaten all their food before it even hits the tank LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Goerge_of_the_Jungle]

lol thanks for you awsomley fast reply! ok i wont worry. I do see him scavenging the substrate after feeding sometimes, and he often nibbles on the plants.

Thanks again!

I LOVE THESE FORUMS! I have spent like ... 3 months (a little every day) reading near every post on here ... Much respect and credit to the founder, mods, admins and the DF community!!

[Cooldaddyfunk286]

I feel ya George, I love these forums too. I have other hobbies...and I've learned that just by finding 1 good forum, can almost guarentee success. and the people here are great!

but Im a newb too George, I only have 2 discus currently. but aslong as we have that willingness to learn, and read and read and read, then read some more...we will have beautiful discus.

that feeding basket seems like a great idea to me. I might buy one and give it a whirl. My discus HAVE picked food right from my hand, but not very often...I find the same thing, how they kinda let it fall and pick at the substrate for a long time. I also figure it should keep the tank alittle cleaner as a whole, or make it easier to clean seeing how the food is contained in 1 area.

I feed my guys (or girls?) tetramin flakes (starting to eat them!) frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, and I also have this stuff called discus formula...its like a frozen light tan jelly cube. Im having trouble getting the discus to eat this, maybe that feeding basket will help?

right now the pecking order has been switching from one fish to the other, its weird...a few days 1 is the bully, then a few days later the bully is getting bullied. is this because I only have 2 discus in the tank? would it be a good idea to get 1 more and make 3? (probly not) or get another pair and have 4? can anyone shed some light on that for me???

just kinda ramblin, sorry to get off topic George.

thanks guys and gals! 8-)

[Hollowman]

Cool,

You are right, having just 2 or 3 discus is a bad idea, they are shoaling fish and prefer to be in goups of 5+ if you have the room. But remember to qt properly. :wink:

[Cooldaddyfunk286]

thanks H-man, I will get another 2 or 3 in a week or so to give me a total of 4-5 discus all around the same size, about 2-3.5 inches. Im only working with a 40 gallon breeder-size tank, so I def dont wanna be overstocked w discus as they grow, Im thinking 5 should be the right number for my size tank and the size of the fish, I dont really wanna buy adults, id much rather put in the time and effort to raise the young fish into big beauties :lol:

thanks again

ps, in the tank is also 4 cardinal tetras, 4 XL neon tetras, 4 black neon tetras (my fav) 2 lil corys, 2 big snails, and some glass shrimp. Its kinda funny, iv noticed my blue diamond kinda stalking the snail...itll just sit and wait for him to pop out the shell and start walking and then hell twist his body and get down there and give it a little pec, he watches and waits, its kinda funny.

[Cooldaddyfunk286]

yeah, I def need to set up a QT tank, how big of a tank would i need to QT say 2 or 3 small discus? 2-3 inches.

also H-man, I'v read you post that you have discus in very alkaline water with success?? my PH is around 7.5...I cant decide if stability is the way to go and just keep the PH at what it is?? (LFS PH is also simmilar to mine) or do I try and lower the PH to around 6.5-6.8? if Im going to lower it I was lookin at a product called seachem discus buffer or something like that, any thought?

cant thank yall enough for the advise
THANKS

[Hollowman]

Hi Cool,,

I have a 2ft x 12 x 18 for a qt at the moment, with just an air driven sponge filter and heater in, if you can get a cheap one off of ebay that will do, you don't need to spend much on one. Remeber that qt takes 6 weeks :shock:

As for ph, I would go for stability over trying to play with it, ph7.5 is fine imo.
hth

H :)