Discus attacking food.

[Taitea]

Hello, I was watching videos of people feeding their discus on Youtube, and I noticed as soon as the food goes in the discus attacks it. My discus just takes a couple of bites when I handfeed them my BH mix, and wait till I drop it in and just casually graze. I was wondering if this was normal? I was thinking of raising the tank temp so I can stimulate their appetites. Would this work?

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Taitea,

Sometimes you'll get discus to go crazy and attack the food and others times they just eat slowly.

In my personal experience I've found that they only attack and devour when they are in a larger group or a VERY hungry group. If I'm away for an entire day, for instance, and they don't get fed for 12 hours, THEN they attack. Thought mine only attack for a short period of time and then back off and wait for me to drop the cube so that they can eat slowly.

Most of the time, mine are never that hungry since I feed often, so mine are much more like yours. They will come up and get a couple of bites from my hand, then wait and eat off the bottom or out of their feeder cone.

It's not a problem so long as yours are active, healthy and growing. =)

[Quintin]

I agree.its up and down according to how often you feed them.Their natural way is to blow on the floor and grab the food as it comes up and some times they can be pigs.As long as they finish thier food you should be fine even if it takes about 5min

[Taitea]

Ah I see. I feed them fairly often. 5-6 times a day, 3 hours between feedings. Also I have a bully in the tank that chases the other discus away from the food as soon as it hits the floor. Is there anyway to calm him down? I tried putting 2 cubes of beef heart in and he protects both with his life.

[strawberryblonde]

I have a bully too, it's a female that just started laying eggs. She bullies one the worst and all the rest equally. Won't let them get near the food no matter what I do! Fortunately they all seem to find enough scraps that float away from her to get their bellies nice and full. They're smart, they'll find food no matter how hard the bully tries to protect it all.

How big are your discus? Can you put some flake food and maybe a cube of freeze dried blackworms in at the same time as one cube of the beefheart? With that much food floating around your bully will have less chance of hogging it all for himself.

[Taitea]

They range from 3" to 3.5", and the bully is the largest at 4". And yeah it's hilarious when I see him guard the food, as soon as he chases one off; another one comes in and eat and the cycle repeats. And i will try that in the morning and I'll report back.

[DISCUS STU]

With optimum water conditions in large groups they may go into some type of feeding frenzy but whether or not this happens isn't really an indication of health or lack of it.