Confused about how much food!!!

[krislewis3]

Pease, someone hep me out with portion sizes! Since discus eat from the bottom, and are slow eaters..the rule of ' all they can eat in 3 minuets' probably does not apply! So, how much flakes food and how much live food should I be feeding 4 juvanile discus???
'

[strawberryblonde]

I was confused about this too when I started keeping discus last year!

I was using flakes, frozen beefheart cubes and freeze dried blackworms. (I stopped using freeze dried bloodworms when I found out they are more like candy for discus). I never fed live foods because of my fear of diseases in the live foods.

Sooooo, for my 4" discus I started with small amounts - 2 pinches of flake food or 1 beefheart cube or 1 fdbw cube at each feeding. I then watched to see how quickly they ate it and as they got used to the foods they'd come beg me for more. They also "demanded" more food at each feeding as they grew larger.

I fed them about 6 times per day with the 2 pinches or the 1 cube of food for the first month or so, then doubled the amounts for each feeding during the second month. I never really worried too much about how long it took them to eat it. It would be ALL gone within 20 minutes at the most and that's fine.

If the food is still sitting on the bottom for more than 45 minutes, reduce the amount you feed each time till they can consume it all within 20 minutes. At 4" though, I'd bet that they will gobble it up within 10 minutes and be back to begging for more.

It's also fun to hand feed them the frozen beefheart cubes and freeze dried blackworms! Mine learned to eat from my hand within a week or so and after that I never had to worry much about food sitting on the bottom for more than that 20 minutes. They'd gobble up most of it from my fingers and when it was too small to hold onto, I'd let it drift to the bottom.

Now that mine are full grown (9 of them and most are over 7"), they eat 1/8 of a cup of flakes for breakfast, then 8 cubes of FDBW's for afternoon snack and 2 cubes of beefheart plus 4 cubes of fdbw's for dinner. They still beg for more, but at this point they are FAT and healthy so I ignore all the mugging at the front of the glass and refuse to give in.

[lipadj46]

The discus will usually eat frozen food completely. But with flakes and pellets mine will graze for hours. Since I do daily 100% water changes I usually just some extra flakes and pellets sit on the bottom and they will pick at it until its gone.

[Mep1127]

Wow I feel like I underfeed my discus reading that thread lol. But i sort of based my feeding routine off this vid on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ5U3FBTBnY&list=FL0ENq-iPzc-nZ4RPrSE_cYg&index=8&feature=plpp_video

I usually feed a few pinches of flake food for 12 mins till they seem satisfied

one whole cube of frozen beefheart for 12-15 mins because they take time to "chew"

A cube of freeze dried black worms which they devour

and a few pinches of pellets pre soaked in water to prevent swelling for about 12-20 mins

I feed them different types of foods at different times of the day and vacuum any left over foods after I time them. I was told to feed no more than 5 mins but I feel as if thats too short of time. Usually that is to prevent bloat. I feed tiny increments at a time so I know they are eating it all thats why i give them so long I dont feed the whole thing at once.

[strawberryblonde]

Wow I feel like I underfeed my discus reading that thread lol.

I hear that a LOT when I talk about my discus! I know that I'm probably a bit unusual in the amounts that I feed my guys, but so far none has bloated, gotten sick, etc and the majority of them reached 7+ inches within 6 months of getting them, so I think my feeding routine works...at least for me it does.

I just based my feedings on them as they were growing. If they ate it ALL up within 20 minutes and then begged for more, I'd feed them a bit more and watch to see if they really were hungry. If they gobbled all that up, I'd then increase the amount I fed the next day by that extra amount, but in all, they still received about 6 feedings a day. I also was (hah, still AM) a huge proponent of lots and lots of fresh water every single day.

Back when they were young (4-6", first 6 months) I did 2 changes per day and now that they are all big n fat I still do 80% every other day. I also am very flexible, so if I see any issues in the tank, or if they have an off day and refuse to eat flake food (it happens sometimes!) I will do a WC that day as well.

The biggest thing I've learned in the past year is to let your fish dictate how often they want to eat and how much they'll eat at each feeding. So long as you're feeding high quality foods and keeping the tank clean, they'll do just fine.

[TNT77]

I was confused about this too when I started keeping discus last year!

I was using flakes, frozen beefheart cubes and freeze dried blackworms. (I stopped using freeze dried bloodworms when I found out they are more like candy for discus). I never fed live foods because of my fear of diseases in the live foods.

Sooooo, for my 4" discus I started with small amounts - 2 pinches of flake food or 1 beefheart cube or 1 fdbw cube at each feeding. I then watched to see how quickly they ate it and as they got used to the foods they'd come beg me for more. They also "demanded" more food at each feeding as they grew larger.

I fed them about 6 times per day with the 2 pinches or the 1 cube of food for the first month or so, then doubled the amounts for each feeding during the second month. I never really worried too much about how long it took them to eat it. It would be ALL gone within 20 minutes at the most and that's fine.

If the food is still sitting on the bottom for more than 45 minutes, reduce the amount you feed each time till they can consume it all within 20 minutes. At 4" though, I'd bet that they will gobble it up within 10 minutes and be back to begging for more.

It's also fun to hand feed them the frozen beefheart cubes and freeze dried blackworms! Mine learned to eat from my hand within a week or so and after that I never had to worry much about food sitting on the bottom for more than that 20 minutes. They'd gobble up most of it from my fingers and when it was too small to hold onto, I'd let it drift to the bottom.

Now that mine are full grown (9 of them and most are over 7"), they eat 1/8 of a cup of flakes for breakfast, then 8 cubes of FDBW's for afternoon snack and 2 cubes of beefheart plus 4 cubes of fdbw's for dinner. They still beg for more, but at this point they are FAT and healthy so I ignore all the mugging at the front of the glass and refuse to give in.
Actually freeze dried bloodworms is not a bad food it is high in protein 58% compared to 66% in freeze dried blackworms..it is the frozen bloodworms that are nothing nutrition wise at 6% protein. I use both freeze dried bloodworm and blackworm in my diet.

[strawberryblonde]

Thanks for clearing that up TNT, I just avoid the whole bloodworm issue these days and feed only the FDBW's. =)

[TNT77]

Thanks for clearing that up TNT, I just avoid the whole bloodworm issue these days and feed only the FDBW's. =)
I would love to do that but money wise with the amount of fish I have its not an option. ;)

[SeaDragon]

I typically feed my discus 2-3 times a day, but with my grow out tank i have a auto feeder with flakes, so they get fed 6 times a day. I feed all of them either frozen blood worms, krill, beef heart or one of the many types of flakes I've accumulated.
I break off a (aprox.) 2inch long/wide piece of the frozen foods that I'm feeding them. The foods I have are pretty thin, so its not a 2x2" cube. If I'm feeding flakes I don't really have a science for it, its varying on what how much they end up eating that day.
I watch to see how much their all eating, making sure everyone gets a chance to eat. After about 20mins of them pecking around, I'll vacuum up the left overs. If they didn't eat as much for that feeding I'll lessen the following meal amounts, though if they want more within short order I'll give them some more.
Feeding discus is kind of a science, seems to depend on the individual fish mostly.

[little-minx]

I was feeding my discus about 3 times a day! I had 7 that were about 2 1/2 inches in a 150gallon tank and I'd give them 1 cube of frozen bloodworms or insect larva..etc! About 2 days ago I noticed one of my pigeon blood just keep eating and eating and eating...as if he was starving and hi's belly was so large. I decided to not feed them for 24 hours and start off with a small meal the next morning. The discus looked normal when I woke up but when I fed them the pigeon blood ate most of the food - again he ate as if in a frenzy. Last night he passed away...his belly was so large looked like he had a marble in it and he started swimming all weird, upside down and sideways. Was he constipated or was he just eating too much....Ive never had an issue like that with any of my fish!!??

[krislewis3]

I am a discus lover and secondly am operating room nurse, so I can tell you that in a human, the symptoms that you describe, sounds like your fish had a bowel obstruction!!

[shoveltrash]

I am a discus lover and secondly am operating room nurseo/t but hi krislewis3! I'm an OR nurse too :D

[yusufm52]

Maybe it got parisites due the feeding of larve etc. Sometimes live foods if not from a good source (clean environment) carry parisites which are actullay bad.

[eaglesfan3000]

I feed mine seven small chunks of beefheart in the morning (between 5 and 5:30 AM I just have the room lights on) one for each discus. My feeder is set for a feeding every three hours 8:30, 11:30 and 2:30 with beefheart flakes and FDBW. They get a 50% water change daily between 3 and 4 then another feeding of beefheart one piece for each discus. Then usually a frozen blood worm snack around 7 before they go to bed at 8.