Discus feeding time

[Mazain]

Why are my discus fish going frenzy for beefheart and sinking granules however, 3 of my discus fish, my pigeon blood CB, Heckle cross and Orange mellon does'nt seem to go frenzy for the sinking granules but, they do for the beefheart.
I Had 2 batches of discus the 1st batch was all pairs; soild blue, blue rim red cover and eruption leopard. They were raised with beefheart, frozen blood worms, flakes and sinking granules. They took along time to grow.
My 2nd batch were singles; pigeon blood CB, yellow, orange, heckle cross and ring leopard. They were raised only with fresh beefheart and their growth rate was faster than the 1st batch.
Now my yellow and ring leopard has paired up and eating the sinking granules with the 1st batch.
So I'm left with 3 singles only for beefheart!.

 

[bgarthe]

My take from having kept discus for years………years ago is that they are rather picky eaters and go through stages of preferences. I sort a think that your fish might be largely grown and thus ready to be weaned off of beefheart. Imho, BH is largely for growing out the fish kept in bare bottom tanks with almost daily WCs. BH will foul the water and create big parameter issues unless WCs are done very frequently. I was also advised by those longtime discus gurus that BH for adult discus is not encouraged. Others may disagree, but that’s my thinking.

One option is to slowly introduce freeze dried blackworms to your feeding regimen. I never had a discus that wouldn’t snarf up FDBWs. Fish eating a combination of pellets, flakes and FDBWs do great with any BH or frozen bloodworms as occasional treats. Also, although it takes more time, you can try to fix the fussy eaters by feeding in super small sessions whereby the opportunity to eat food quickly disappears ..if…those fussy ones don’t eat asap when feedings occur. It takes patience, but does work…..at least it did for me. Putting food in a feeding cone also works keeping the food from spreading all over.

 

[Mazain]

freeze dried blackworms

This is not available where I live.

Fish eating a combination of pellets, flakes and FDBWs do great with any BH or frozen bloodworms as occasional treats

I have tried these and and my 3 discus repel it.

The product attached is what I tried. I normally dont mix krill or shirmps and vitamins in my beefheart mix. This was a try out if discus repel food other than beefheart as they are picky. As a stapel food its hard to replace BH and treats are only for better colors.

 

[Mazain]

Imho, BH is largely for growing out the fish kept in bare bottom tanks with almost daily WCs.

This is true, no one would argue that discus farming in bare bottoms would'nt choose beefheart.
IMHO discus fish that are raised with a high nutrient staple doent need krill, fish, shirmps, spinach, or vitamins mixed in their BH, if treats like torpica, jbl, hikari, etc. Brands are not enhancing your discus fish colors at (10cm and above) stage.
If your discus fish does not get the colors your looking for after 10cm, MHO is that they were not feed a high nutrient diet.