excreting more feces is good?

[ks]

hi all,

this is my original bh mix recipe,
3 part of bh
1 part of prawn
1/2 part of salmon
carrot
spirulina
paprika
multi vit

i have change recently the carrot proportion fr 1 part to 3 part (thought to give more dietary fibre) and notice that the fish excrete more feces after eating this bh mix! just wonder whether this is better?? ??? as i understand that a correct proportion of essential nutrients should be easily digested and absorbed and result in minimal waste production.

i have also heard that discus digest poorly fibre, is this correct?

thank you

[Smokey]

Yes, you are correct. Discus have a ''short'' gut. Meant to process insects, fish, grubs, etc. They are conavoirs, not herbavoirs.
Carrots are very fibreious!!! LOOSE THEM !
Perhaps the extra ''feces'' is the plant material ..undigested.
Use fresh cloves of galic. Grind them into a fine paste. cut back on the salmon / increase the prawns.
Every try yellow peppers ? mmm mmmm good.
Every thing else sounds tasty.

ps - Grind everything while it is frozen, better consistancy; easier to work with , less mess.

Smokey

[discus_nw]

No animal digests fiber well. Just follow an elephant around the savannah for a day. ;)

When feeding beefheart, I would include some fiber to help move it along in the digestive tract. Mammalian meat is foreign to the discus in its natural habitat.

Actually, I would increase the salmon % and decrease the beefheart to make it a 1::1::1 ratio of BH, prawn, salmon. I'd add garlic, too, along with the vitamins and some fiber.

[Smokey]

Aha - a heart is not ''meat'' - it is the same in any animal. This is the difference.

[Carol_Roberts]

I never thought of that . . . . while the muscle tissue may vary widely, the heart tissue and liver tissue appear very similiar in trout, chicken, beef . . . . I don't know about insects, lol

[ks]

hi all,

thanks for the advise.

if fish digest poorly fibre, then i have to reduce food like carrot, spinach..etc, right? ???

just another question, a bit puzzled....
1. if discus digest poorly fibre, then shouldn't it cause constipation?
2. OR, discus digest poorly fibre, and the food cant be absorded and so pass out as feces?
3. THEn, what kind of food can help digestion better? ;D

thanks

[discus_nw]

It's "meat" enough, though, for the purposes of this discussion.

[BlueTurquoise]

KS: Point 2 is probably the closest one

There are other meaty foods that can help with digestion, brine shrimp immediately comes to mind. I also think that Black Worms are easy to digest as well...

Chong

[ks]

chong: i agree with you, i think pt 2 is my case.

i have greatly reduced the carrot proportion and back to original! ;D discus are happy now ;D

another food which is easily digested that i can think of is tubifex worm, ....er but i dare not to feed them, too risky.

[ks]

hi all,

went to my uni library to find some material on fish nutrition and managed to find a book on 'nutrition and feeding of fish' by Tom Lovell.

it states here that....'fiber is generally indigestible to monogastric animal including fish. fiber has no functional value in fish feeds except possibly to control rate of movement of ingesta thru the digestive tract......as fiber is indigestable, it adds to the fecal waste.....'.