what do you feed your wild discus

[discusriver]

hi everyone was curious to see what other wild discus keepers feed there wilds.i have read a lot about fruits and berries making up a large portion of there diets in the wild.would love to hear your views especially on beef heart in the wild diet .regards lawrence

[ILLUSN]

my heckels only ever ate beefheart mix, but i do add extra veggies to it (spineach peas carrots)

[Nev]

Everything you feed the domestic breed fish. Beefheart, bloodworms, live black worms and brine shrimp. And what ever else Is on the menu, they aren't that fussy after a while.

May be different if you get some straight from the amazon but that's not gonna happen in Oz.

[Nev]

Hey discus river! Nice avatar, liked y other name better - lol

Not sure y, it'll come to me.... Having a senior moment.

[Oygle2]

Oh dear. You've started the debat on what to feed your discus. I think the forum is split about beef heart. Some say yes and the rest of us say a big no.
Mainly because, I suppose we think it's best to feed them what they are likely to feed-on in the wild. So, the beef heart issue - they are not going to feed on it in the wild and yes they will eat it, if you give it to them. Is it good for them? So, I'd like to say, I come from a natural health back ground. Well, just like humans, if we eat meat we have to produce pancreatic enzymes to break down the animal proteins into useable amino acids. That's a fact. Humans can all do that to a point. Discus on the other hand have a very small pancreas and if you over load them with beef heart, their little bodies have to deal with it. Just like if we eat too much - what is wrongly called food - from the "golden arches" then we will get fat and become unhealthy. There are a number of excellant recipies in this site, try them out.

I make this: a fresh filet of a red flesh fish, a fresh filet of a white flesh fish, two or three green king prawns (shrimp if you're Americian) and I take off their head spike but leave the shell on, two desert spoons (the size you'd eat ice cream with) of Spiralina powder, two T spoons of Tetra colourbits, some frozen daphnia, some frozen worms and if I can get some fresh little black worms - (still alive) I put a dollop of them in as well, maybe enough to fill an egg cup. Put all this in a blender. Blend it until it's a green smooth sludge. I simply put a half a cup into a sealable plastic bag and lay it flat in the freezer. And there youhave it. I simply break of enough and plop it into the tank and stand back. They will devour it in no time. Here's a tip: the stomach of a discus is about the same size as one of it's eye balls. So, one eye ball amount per fish. They don't get over nor under fed.

Oh yeah! And when I remember, I'll feed them live brine shrimp - that's entertaining to watch.

Good luck with it all and remember, they rely on you to look after them.


Regards Mick

ummm ..... Oygle2.