Getting feeding right

Hello all,

Last night I brought home 5 new Discus that belonged to a friend of mine who is retiring from the hobby due to illness. I didn't want to bother her with a heap of questions about feeding ect, so I am here asking you lot lol
I have kept discus before but I have not kept large discus, my previous experience was with smaller ones. I am not 100% sure of these new ones sizes but at a guess they range from 4.5 to 6 plus inches, to me they are giants compared to what I have owned before. So I am a little lost at what I should be feeding such big fish, how much and also how many times a day. Following is the foods I have brought for now, please advise me if there is something missing that I should have for them, thank you..
Attachment 114512

I have just realized I posted this in the wrong section, sorry I'm only new here. Can it be moved to foods section please?

Sounds like you have adult discus. You could feed any one of those pellet foods once daily. No more than they will eat in about 5 mins. I would also feed 1 cube of the freeze dried black worms daily. Split the feedings between pellets and black worms. You could feed pellets in the morning and black worms in the evening.
Water changes are the more important issue to address. Hopefully, you haven't just put them in a small tank with a bunch of other fish with out a quarantine period. Depending on the size of tank, Do at least a 50% water change twice weekly and your discus should stay healthy.

Hello Smsimcik,
Thank you for your comment, the feeding you described above sounds great thank you, I will feed them the freeze dried cube in the morning and the pellets at night.
I am very clear about water changes and discus going hand in hand don't worry, ive just turned the heater off to do a water change now.
The 5 new discus have been put into my fully cycled 4 foot 182 liter (48 gallon) display tank, the only other fish in that tank is 1 small lone stunted discus I had brought 1 month ago and 6 corydora catfish. The test readings on the tank yesterday were:
PH 6.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20-40 hoping this will come down with the water change today..
KH 35.8
GH 107.4

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that one lone stunted discus that's already in there may be carrying pathogens that your new discus have never been exposed to before. Honestly, I would get rid of the stunted discus just to be on the safe side.
The nitrates are too high. You may need to do daily water changes until you can get it down in the 8-10 range. Otherwise, sounds like you're on the right track.

Hi again Smsimcik,

Get rid of my little stunted discus? I couldn't do that, I saved him from the pet store where he had been alone for weeks, even months. He is now so excited to have friends, he is hanging out with the big discus like they are his long lost family, it would break my heart to get rid of him. He has not been sick since ive had him, his even grown in the last month. How would I know he has these pathogens you speak of? Would he be showing signs of them that I could see?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sabrina

Hi again Smsimcik,

Get rid of my little stunted discus? I couldn't do that, I saved him from the pet store where he had been alone for weeks, even months. He is now so excited to have friends, he is hanging out with the big discus like they are his long lost family, it would break my heart to get rid of him. He has not been sick since ive had him, his even grown in the last month. How would I know he has these pathogens you speak of? Would he be showing signs of them that I could see?

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if you feel he is healthy don't get rid of him, if he is looking active and welcomes his new friends he is probably good. I get real attached to my pets, even my tetras. I just added 7 discus to my 450 gal tank, a gift from my wife's brother, one is 6", four are 4" and two are 3". The 3" worry me a bit as they don't eat as well as the others and are kinda scared of me when I show up in the room. I feed my discus black worms from dan's calif black worms, and i mix some pellets and sometimes flakes, but they get the worms 90% of the time. Good luck.

Hi Geo :)

Thank you for your comments, he is healthy and active and lovesssssss his new family! If I knew fish any better id say he almost exploded with joy when I put the 5 new discus in the tank the other day.
I am like you, I get very attached to my pets, especially my fish. I was even advised not to buy the 5 new discus I just brought, but I had to have them, no one was talking me out of it.
450 gallon!!! Wow, that's just a huge tank Geo, I almost cant imagine it. The biggest tank ive had is only a 59 gallon lol
Thank you :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sabrina

Hi again Smsimcik,

Get rid of my little stunted discus? I couldn't do that, I saved him from the pet store where he had been alone for weeks, even months. He is now so excited to have friends, he is hanging out with the big discus like they are his long lost family, it would break my heart to get rid of him. He has not been sick since ive had him, his even grown in the last month. How would I know he has these pathogens you speak of? Would he be showing signs of them that I could see?

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No he wouldn't be showing signs of carrying pathogens, that's my whole point. He could be perfectly normal and still be carrying harmful pathogens that will eventually make some of your new discus sick. I don't know if he does or not and neither do you. Hopefully he's fine and the new discus will be fine.
But you made a classic beginner's mistake putting new fish in with a stunted fish without a quarantine. Sometimes it works out ok and sometimes it doesn't. I know because I tried the same thing back in the day and I lived to regret it.

Ah I see, well I guess time will tell if I have made a mistake. Thank you again for the advice :)

Hello again,

Was wondering how long a discus can go without eating before its time to start panicking? The night I picked them up they had been fed already. They have now been home in my tank for 4.5 days, one of them is yet to eat a single bit of food, the other 4 are eating bits here and there. It is the Red Tourq, it is the biggest one of the lot, I would say it is over 6 inches from head to tail and very thick set in the head. At feeding time it swims away to the other end of the tank and just sits there, it shows no interest in the foods. Is it trying to starve itself? It has also been turning pale in colour and then goes back to normal. Should I buy some garlic guard tomorrow and try soaking the foods in it? Starting to wonder what to do..

Seems I spoke too soon!! I just fed them the freeze dried cubes and the Red Tourq lunched at the cube lol So I think things will be ok now :)