Discus Food

[smithy29]

What do you feed your discus on just bourght 6 small Discus and was wondering what everyone uses

 

[ainsy]

Beefheart, Beefheart with some 'greens' mixed in, bloodworms, brineshrimp, Tetra Prima 'Discus' & a variety of flaked food

 

[MBOU]

Personally I NEVER advise anyone to feed beefheart, its disgusting stuff and about as far from natural as a food can get (how many cows are discus likely to be eating normally?!).

The only time beefhearts likely to be any good is for big breeders on a mass scale trying to force young discus to grow at a really fast rate so they can be sold for more. It doesn't do them any good in the long run though and puts a huge strain on the filter. Discus would rather have good water than beefheart.

I always raised my discus on Prima or GranoDiscus and a LOT of bloodworm mixed up with brineshrimp/artemia, black mosquito larvae and greenfoods. As they got older i added in Krill and Chopped Prawn and as adults they ate whole prawns. Made feeding cheaper.

I made my own frozen food blends as it stopped them being fussy, fussy discus are poor doers. I bought big slabs of brineshrimp/artemia, mysis and bloodworms and a bag of prawns. heated it in a bowl over some hot water and mixed it all up, chopped in slithers of raw garlic (great for health and parasites and they love the taste of it) and also chopped spinach or sheets of nori seaweed for their vegies.

I then lined a baking tray with two layers of clingfilm, poured the mix in and spread it out until it was well mixed and flat, stuck it in the freezer, when frozen i wrappd the new slab in clingfilm and each day i just broke a little bit off for them.

By adding in the greens and a bag of frozen cooked and peeled prawns, it made the food go a long way for the money and if your fish have preferences, just change the recipe!

 

[ainsy]

And do discus regularly come into contact with garlic,spinach, nori, brineshrimp or prawn in their natural environment?

You seem happy to feed your fish loads of other things that they would never encounter so why is beefheart any different?

I am a firm believer in beefheart - in conjunction with frequent high volume water changes!

Smithy29 - LOADS of info about feeding discus beefheart out there - do your research & make up your own mind.

 

[MBOU]

Nope but closer related to the sorts of foods they would find IMO, unless you want to find out exactly what species of plant matter they eat and invertebrates they eat. But at least prawns are closer to the invertebrates they would be eating. Garlic maybe less so, but it does have health benefits as i pointed out, it was just something in the mix *i* made.

 

[snowflake311]

A good quality flake and worms. Blackworms these are great for discus if you can find them. Mine eat algae waffers.

 

[wolflyn]

my discus will eat just about anything i put in the tank for food,, bloodworm, beefheart(with lavabread) mussles, worms, flake food etc

 

[hellohefalump]

I feed beef heart, discus mix (some sort of greens, shrimp, beef heart, bloodworm...), earthworms, and prima. Only two of my discus will eat the prima, but I keep feeding it anyway to try and get the others eating it.

 

[angelmouse]

mixed diet is best, mine have prima, beefheart, dried tubifex worms and dried or live brine shrimp