Discus Feeding

[johnelka]

I have had discus now for 18 month and just moved to a 150 gallon tank .I have just started making my own fozen food which seem,s to be going well as the fish love it ! I would like to know how many feeds should i give them in a day as i would like to boost there growth . I have heard of breeders feeding up to eight times a day. ps i am aware i could polute my tank and want to avoid this! iHAVE 8 DISCUS and 2 angels plus a couple of cat fish

 

[PrettyDiscus]

I have had discus now for 18 month and just moved to a 150 gallon tank .I have just started making my own fozen food which seem,s to be going well as the fish love it ! I would like to know how many feeds should i give them in a day as i would like to boost there growth . I have heard of breeders feeding up to eight times a day. ps i am aware i could polute my tank and want to avoid this! iHAVE 8 DISCUS and 2 angels plus a couple of cat fish

What size are the Discus? If they are under 4" they need to be fed 6 times per day to reach their potential size. Daily water changes are also very important as they secrete a hormone into the water everytime their water is changed. If your Discus are above 4" i would say 3-4 times is ideal.

 

[johnelka]

my fish are all 4-5 inch thanks for the reply!

 

[paul-discus]

my fish are all 4-5 inch thanks for the reply!

Personally I would never have angels in with discus and i wouldn't feed a beefheart mix that many times a day. Vary the diet ie chopped earthworm, Tetra Pima or Tetra Discus, Krill, Mysis shrimp, bloodworm e.t.c. I feed my discus 4 times a day but i do daily water changes and i hoover up after feeding beefheart. You might like to try Agar-Agar to bind your beefheart mix together as that better withstands the higher temperature of a discus tank and can be purchased from health food stores (does the same job as gelatine but gelatine breaks up at higher temperatures). Also putting a little spinach and parsley into the beefheart mix is a good thing. If you would like my beefheart mix recipe pm me and i will gladly give you it.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

my fish are all 4-5 inch thanks for the reply!

Personally I would never have angels in with discus and i wouldn't feed a beefheart mix that many times a day. Vary the diet ie chopped earthworm, Tetra Pima or Tetra Discus, Krill, Mysis shrimp, bloodworm e.t.c. I feed my discus 4 times a day but i do daily water changes and i hoover up after feeding beefheart. You might like to try Agar-Agar to bind your beefheart mix together as that better withstands the higher temperature of a discus tank and can be purchased from health food stores (does the same job as gelatine but gelatine breaks up at higher temperatures). Also putting a little spinach and parsley into the beefheart mix is a good thing. If you would like my beefheart mix recipe pm me and i will gladly give you it.

Hi paul,
Can you tell me your recipe please?
Also, is it safe to feed carrots? Nobody seems to mention them for feeding their fish. I thought they would be benifical to their health.
Thanks.

 

[crazie.eddie]

I hate the mess of making my own foods for my discus. LOL Luckily, a local breeder makes his own and sells them as well.

I keep angels with my discus. The discus happen to be doing fine, since they are as aggressive eaters as the angels. I feed my fish frozen bloodworms, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, hikari sinking carnivore pellets, tetra bits, beefheart mix, and frozen peas. My discus will ONLY eat the frozen peas if I hand feed it to them. Otherwise, if I just drop it into the tank, they will not even look at them.

 

[johnelka]

please do post you recipe for beefheart . i do add spinnich and even tetra prima foods .locally to me there are a couple of well known breeders , sd punchard ,great harwood . they recommend feeding high quantitys of beefheart . please could you mention why you would,nt keep angels in a discus tank , i have heard angels can carry a disease which will affect others but this cannot be confirmed .my discus live well with angels and do not show signs of aggresion !l

 

[paul-discus]

my fish are all 4-5 inch thanks for the reply!

Personally I would never have angels in with discus and i wouldn't feed a beefheart mix that many times a day. Vary the diet ie chopped earthworm, Tetra Pima or Tetra Discus, Krill, Mysis shrimp, bloodworm e.t.c. I feed my discus 4 times a day but i do daily water changes and i hoover up after feeding beefheart. You might like to try Agar-Agar to bind your beefheart mix together as that better withstands the higher temperature of a discus tank and can be purchased from health food stores (does the same job as gelatine but gelatine breaks up at higher temperatures). Also putting a little spinach and parsley into the beefheart mix is a good thing. If you would like my beefheart mix recipe pm me and i will gladly give you it.

Hi paul,
Can you tell me your recipe please?
Also, is it safe to feed carrots? Nobody seems to mention them for feeding their fish. I thought they would be benifical to their health.
Thanks.

Yes carrots are in my recipe which i shall let you have as soon as possible

 

[paul-discus]

I have been asked to give my beefheart mix so here goes

Ingredients you will need 2 oz wheatgerm (health food store)
pinch of brewers yeast (health food store)
small tub of Tetra PRO Colour flakes (use half the tub)
Agar-agar (health food store) this is like gelatine but withstands higher water temperatures without breaking up.
Kent freshwater Zoe (this is a vitamin mix and can be purchased at www.aquaticbiotoipe.com
2 egg yolks
1 medium blanched carrot
2 oz fresh parsley
2 oz spinach (frozen or fresh) if fresh throw it in a dry hot frying pan for a few seconds then squeeze it dry.
1lb beefheart ( buy 2lb and cut all sinew and fat from it so that you are left with 1lb of really lean heart
1 slice of thin ox liver (small lean slice)
half a pound of fresh fish bits Any non oily fish like cod haddock e.t.c. i get mine at the market
you could also add a few prawns, clams e.t.c up to you
2 cloves of garlic or garlic guard
spirulina (optional) you can buy this at Holland and Barretts, expensive about £13

I used to paturize the mix in a double boiler but i now do it this way. I cut the liver and heart into cubes and blanch for just a few minutes in a small amount of water then rinse and set aside.
I then cut out any bones in the fish bits that i can feel then bring to the boil in a saucepan then set aside and when it cools i flake in my fingers taking out any bones that may be still left in.
Weigh out all other ingredients except agar-agar and add everything into a food processor and blitz it all up like a pate.
The next thing now is to do the agar-agar follow the instructions carefully and when ready add to the mix stirring it all in, I use 2 heaped tablespoons in 2 cupfuls of water but when it's ready i usually only use about half of it.
Next i put it into those square plastic containers that the chinese takeaways come in and leave to cool in the fridge. I then put them in the freezer and when nearly frozen i take them out and cut them into small cubes ready for feeding and put them back into the freezer.
On a morning i take a cube out and leave it to thaw a little while i have my breakfast then when it's nearly thawed i cut it into discus sized mouthfuls then leave it to thaw completely, finally i give about half a teaspoonful for 1 feed for 9 discus and put the remainder into the fridge.
About an hour later i usually do my daily water change.

If you don't want to use agar-agar you can use gelatine but bear in mind this might break up in a discus tank due to the higher temperatrures or you can use both either will pass straight through the fish without causing any problems.
My next feed of the day is Tetra Discus, then my third feed is chopped earthworms and my final feed of the day is either Krill, Mysis shrimp or brine shrimp.
Earthworms can be bought in tubs at angling shops or dug from a garden that hasn't been treated with pestcides. If you can't bear to chop them up you can blitz them in a food processor, then add agar-agar and freeze.

The beefheart mix is eagerly taken by my fish so if you ever need to add medications it can be added to the mix.
I feed Discus Delights flake food occasionally and this i get from plymouthdiscus, I also get wormer plus from them which they reccomend you use once a month.
I hope you can understand this, did i tell you i used to be a chef lol.

 

[johnelka]

my fish are all 4-5 inch thanks for the reply!

Personally I would never have angels in with discus and i wouldn't feed a beefheart mix that many times a day. Vary the diet ie chopped earthworm, Tetra Pima or Tetra Discus, Krill, Mysis shrimp, bloodworm e.t.c. I feed my discus 4 times a day but i do daily water changes and i hoover up after feeding beefheart. You might like to try Agar-Agar to bind your beefheart mix together as that better withstands the higher temperature of a discus tank and can be purchased from health food stores (does the same job as gelatine but gelatine breaks up at higher temperatures). Also putting a little spinach and parsley into the beefheart mix is a good thing. If you would like my beefheart mix recipe pm me and i will gladly give you it.

Hi paul,
Can you tell me your recipe please?
Also, is it safe to feed carrots? Nobody seems to mention them for feeding their fish. I thought they would be benifical to their health.
Thanks.

Yes carrots are in my recipe which i shall let you have as soon as possible

wow now thats cooking for fish! you should sell this

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Hello johnelka,

I also have a beef heart recipe you may want to try,

10 pounds of beef heart, cleaned and cubed
1 pound of fresh or frozen shelled shrimp
1/2 pound of high-quality fish flake food
6 ounces of spinach (should be boiled briefly) or spirulina powder
2 ounces of paprika
6 packages of Knox gelatin
10 multivitamin tablets for human consumption

Directions

1. The hearts must be strippped and clean, there must be no fatty tissue or blood vessels. Use a sharp knife or scalpel to do this. These are easiest to cut when no compelety thawed so they remain abit firm.

2. Cut the heart into fourths from the top and work on smaller sections. Place the peices of cleaned heart into a clean bowl. ( I recommend pre-cutting pieces so mincing can be done easier)

3. At the end you have around two-thrids of the meat left to work with.

4. Run cubes through meat grinder like regular minced meat

5. Now, put flakes into a blender with the shrimp, spinach/spirulina, paprike and crushed multivitamins

6. Use a bucket to blend beef with the other mixture by hand. Once mixture is mixed well, prepare gelatin according to instruction on the back of the box. Then agian use your hands to mix the gelatin into the heart mixture.

7. The mixture can now be put into bags. The best way to store it is to use large zip-lock bags and seperate them evenly. Ideally the slabs should be about 1/2 inch thick. Add about two handfuls of the mixture to each bag. Place bags flat in a freezer.

NOTE:

This high in fat food can cause health problems in Discus and should only be fed about 2 days per week.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

"Personally I would never have angels in with discus" Well I would say otherwise, I have heard angels are not a problem with discus, more then i've heard them being harmful for them. I have incountured Discus and angel tanks, and the discus have out lived the angels. This is a very mixed topic and everyone has their own opinion so do what you think is right, if you see angels being aggresive then seperate them, but the biggest thing aside from that would be making sure both of them get food as angels are very fast eaters and may not leave much for the Discus.

 

[paul-discus]

It is a mixed topic but angels are greedy eaters and do tend to get to the food first and chase the discus away, whereas the discus like to take some food from the substrate by wafting it up as they would in the wild.
Discus can indeed pick something up from angels that the angels carry on them at all times, regardless of where they come from and i don't know, but probably this is passed on if the discus get stressed and if they can't get to their food then this alone will stress them. I'm not an expert here so maybe someone with more knowledge can help out here. I have indeed read books were they say angels and discus go together but i have read many more that say it's a no no.

By the way anymore beefheart recipes?

 

[paul-discus]

Apparantly angels carry something called SPIRONULEAU VORTENS (don't ask me what that is) and certain worms that they can pass on to discus but it seems there is no scientific proof to back that up.

 

[R1ch13]

Ok i dont know anything about Discus lol !

I am interested in them though !

I remember seeing somewhere that this Beefheart stuff is bad for them

Ill look it up and ill elaborate it a bit !

Richie