Beef Heart or Beef Heart Mix good for Discus Longevity?

Hi All

I know that Beef Heart or Beef Heart Mix is commonly fed for discus .

But does it increase or decrease the lifetime of discus i.e. ( 10 + years or just around 6 years)?

Also, do you all think discus cant reap the benefit of longevity if fed with daphnia in aquarium given that in amazon
river it has only lived eating insects outside omnivorous diet?

Note: Shape and Color alone is not important but healthy increased life expectancy is more important in my view

Thanks
Madhan

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Originally Posted by madhan1979

Hi All

I know that Beef Heart or Beef Heart Mix is commonly fed for discus .

But does it increase or decrease the lifetime of discus i.e. ( 10 + years or just around 6 years)?

Also, do you all think discus cant reap the benefit of longevity if fed with daphnia in aquarium given that in amazon
river it has only lived eating insects outside omnivorous diet?

Note: Shape and Color alone is not important but healthy increased life expectancy is more important in my view

Thanks
Madhan

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Kumar, I used to feed my breeding fish my own made beef heart. Now I have gone away from it because there are so many other options. My concerning about the beef heart is two fold. It is not a natural food for discus. They are not piranha fish and unless they are attacking a poor cow somewhere in the Amazon River they are not eating beef. The second concern that I had was fat/gristle. A fish could not digest beef fat/gristle that might find its way into the beef heart blend. Lab technicians have developed nutrient filled fish food that include more vitamins, minerals, and even color enhancers than any beef heart blend will

I won't argue about whether one food is better than the other, because there is no data. Everything I've ever read or heard is supposition. None of the fish food manufacturers has ever presented any data on superior growth for their product. Is that because there is none?

Also, it's important to realize that there's also no such thing as a natural food. What we are used to eating are not necessarily natural, nor is natural necessarily good. Is milk a good food? For 90% of human history - until we learned to domesticate cattle - cow's milk was not a natural part of our diet. Is cheese natural? Humans likely only ate cheese in the form of rancid milk for centuries before cheese making became a craft.

Looking at this scientifically, this is the heart of an animal capable of producing 14,000 LB of milk a year (average milk production for a California dairy cow). This milk is what we feed our children because it's the most nutritional food source we know. Is the heart of this animal actually deficient in anything? If it did, could it produce 14,000 LB of the most nutritional food we feed our children? Artificial foods may well have more added vitamins, minerals, etc., but extra is very different from balanced.

I know discus breeders that have raised 5+ generations of fish for which the sole food source was beefheart. I happen to rotate my food source, but there's beefheart every day. If you want big discus... :eek:

Thanks. Do you have experience or seen anyone feeding Beef Heart everyday and discus living for around 10 years or so?

"Power feeding" fish probably reduces lifespan. And feeding an unnatural diet probably reduces it further.

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Originally Posted by madhan1979

Thanks. Do you have experience or seen anyone feeding Beef Heart everyday and discus living for around 10 years or so?

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My oldest discus lived about 6 years and it certainly had its share of beefheart. I don't know of any discus that's lived 10 years. Old discus get very wrinkly by year 5, sometimes year 4. I read somewhere that discus live 7 years, but I've never kept one that long.

Of course, Madhan, you live in a vegetarian country. I suspect vegetarians live longer than omnivores or carnivores. I suspect that's a matter of reduced caloric intake, rather than whether one diet is more natural than the other.

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Originally Posted by Willie

My oldest discus lived about 6 years and it certainly had its share of beefheart. I don't know of any discus that's lived 10 years. Old discus get very wrinkly by year 5, sometimes year 4. I read somewhere that discus live 7 years, but I've never kept one that long.

Of course, Madhan, you live in a vegetarian country. I suspect vegetarians live longer than omnivores or carnivores. I suspect that's a matter of reduced caloric intake, rather than whether one diet is more natural than the other.

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A very good reason why I never buy large wild imported discus. While large there is no telling their age. I wonder too if sometimes when we purchase large discus from breeders if we might not be getting older burnt out breeding stock. Willie, muscle mass and development, for humans anyway, is best served by the consumption of red meat. Things like tobacco and alcohol are not good which is why I have strictly maintained a smoke free environment in all of my fish tanks. With regard to the beef heart (also known as bee fart to daughter Ellie Mae) I will dig out what I have stored in the freezer and give the fish a shot at it. Thanks, Willie.

All, Great ! Am planning to feed once a week beef or pork heart and all other times pellets and daphnia from freezer.

I hope it would help from varied diet and as well crossing 6 years !

Madhan