Does Anyone Make Their Own Discus Food?

[mattlee]

ive been looking at websites giving recipes for home made discus food. this kind of makes sense as you can add anything you like to help the fishes health etc but was wondering if anyone has ever done it before.....?
the frozen foods we buy from lfs etc do contain alot of water and can be quite expensive when feeding the fish multiple times a day and making your own food seems to be the way forward as long as you can handle cutting up hearts and kidneys etc etc

 

[juggernuts]

ive been looking at websites giving recipes for home made discus food. this kind of makes sense as you can add anything you like to help the fishes health etc but was wondering if anyone has ever done it before.....?
the frozen foods we buy from lfs etc do contain alot of water and can be quite expensive when feeding the fish multiple times a day and making your own food seems to be the way forward as long as you can handle cutting up hearts and kidneys etc etc

never made it myself, but im a manager at a butchers and i know if you go to the right place you could easily get an ox heart which is probably about 1.5kg if not more for a pound or less ( i only charge a pound) and i only know this as a guy who comes into my shop buys 6 every few days for his dogs.

not sure what other matter you put into these, i suppose some kind of vegetables or w/e maybe a supplement also as i said sure your recipies state this but yeah, any local butcher should be able to order you them in if they dont already stock them, along with ox livers and kidneys id say hearts are your cheapest and best bet

keep me updated if you get round to making any

Paul

 

[mattlee]

well heres just 1 of the recipes i found online, it seems cheap enough to do....

http/www.rockymountaindiscus.com/Discus_fish_food_recipe.htm

 

[markandhisfish]

thats the exact recipe i keep coming back to myself. i have bookmarked it and im thinking about making some for when i get mine .

 

[Monty-2010]

I've never actually made anything like that, but do feed my fish finely chopped shrimp, or cooked chicken or some mince meat always goes down well

 

[JA5ON]

i get ox heart for nowt from work and was thinkin of mixin some othere stuff in or even just usein as a heart sub

 

[discus_lover]

i feed beefheart mixture and i make it own...

 

[mattlee]

i feed beefheart mixture and i make it own...

does the link above sound like a decent recipe?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I make both Beefheart and fish mix. I posted both recipes with photos and step by step process of making it. You can try searching for it on the site, I'll take a look and see if I can dig it up too.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Found it.


http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/298917-seafoodbeefheart-mix-for-discus-or-other-cichlids/page__hl__SEafood__fromsearch__1


I sorta stole and tweaked the seafood recipe from someone else who posted it on another forum It's a good recipe though.

 

[Glenbo1981]

Great for colour, bad for the fish, they are not meant to eat animal proteins.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Great for colour, bad for the fish, they are not meant to eat animal proteins.

That's highly inaccurate. Some may argue that Discus should not eat beefheart, or definitley not as a staple, but I would like to see some solid evidence of how this will negatively impact a Discus. One study showed that a wild caught Discus had a lot of vegetable matter in it's stomach at that time. IMO the study was well done but could be called inconclusive, after all I would think their diet could vary a high degree from fish to fish, season to season, region to region, species to species and possibly age to age. Discus are fine to eat fish and crustaceans as this too would be eaten in the wild.

I prefer not to feed Beefheart as a staple in their diet (more like a treat instead), although I did try it with a batch of juvys I was growing out recently. Discus need a high amount of fat and protein in order to achieve proper growth, that's why it's used. Now that the fish are pushing 5" each I have stopped feeding such high amounts of it.

 

[markandhisfish]

ive been looking into these beefheart recipes a lot lately and to me their reasoning and logic seems sound enough , but i agree with you discus keeper that i wont use beefheart as a staple , i will however be trying your seafood mix recipe , adding in a pack of hikari gold cichlid pellets that my fish dont readilly eat . and i will probably make up a small amount of beefheart mix to give as a treat say twice a week .

i also have a lfs which is excellent for top quality livefood too so i will probably include some brine shrimp ( rinsed) in their diet as well .

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

ive been looking into these beefheart recipes a lot lately and to me their reasoning and logic seems sound enough , but i agree with you discus keeper that i wont use beefheart as a staple , i will however be trying your seafood mix recipe , adding in a pack of hikari gold cichlid pellets that my fish dont readilly eat . and i will probably make up a small amount of beefheart mix to give as a treat say twice a week .

i also have a lfs which is excellent for top quality livefood too so i will probably include some brine shrimp ( rinsed) in their diet as well .

Sounds good Mark. My fish go nuts for both the seafood and beefheart. They took the seafood readily the first time it was offered.

 

[cheesy feet]

3 pounds beef heart - cleaned& defatted & trimmed
2 pounds raw shrimp - peeled
1 pound white fish
1 pound liver (we use beef) - trimmed & rinsed well and soaked in very hotwater 3 minutes
2 pounds frozen plankton - thawed, or 6 ounces freeze dried - well rinsed
2 boxes frozen spinach- steamed lightly
1 box peas- steamed lightly
Note: It is best to obtain organic beef products that are raised free of bovinegrowth hormone (BGH) and antibiotics.


Run all ingredients through a food processor. When everything is processed mixwell in a large bowl.
Add the following: They may be obtained at your local health food store.
6 raw egg yolks , 1/3 cup kelp powder (a seaweed) , 1/4 cup brewers yeast , 1/2cup wheat germ and 1 tablespoons spirulina powder.
One tablespoon vitamin c powder. Mix thoroughly.

THE BINDER: At the health food store get some agar powder. Not thestringy stuff, not the pellets. Get the powder. The eggs and shrimp in thediscus food recipe also help bind the food. Stir in 30 grams of agar agar. Mixwell. To activate the agar binding we will heat gently in the oven. Set theoven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit (warm setting). Line cookie sheets with waxpaper. This makes it go much easier later on. Smooth the food onto the waxpaper lined cookie sheets around 1/2 inch thick. You will use several pans.Place the sheet in the oven for 20 minutes. Next cool the pans. Place them inthe freezer. When frozen remove and cut into blocks. Store the blocks in highquality freezer bags. We've come this far- so why skimp now? The blocks can beprecut into cubes if desired. Four ounce or eight ounce portions can be madewith dewormer or desired medication if needed.

Back in the 80's Dr. Ken Reeves,the veterinarian and discus expert, came up with something that was a lot offun and continues today. He would organize "discus food parties".Each person would bring a certain ingredient for the recipe. It was a party inthe purest sense of the word. And somehow- everyone would leave with lots ofgood food for their discus. The good doctor would always test the discus fishfood on a cracker before pronouncing it fit for discus consumption. Of courseback in those days, discus breeders would drink a cup of water from theirdiscus breeder aquariums to show how clean it was. My how times have changed .. . .
Al Johnson, author


Oh, this has already been posted lol - I had it saved.