Jenene , as far as I know frozen and live Brine shrimp AKA Artemia Salina are completely pathogen free and safe for discus to be fed with . .
I feed frozen Artemia(brine shrimp) to my discus in all of my discus keeping practice and I have never relate any disease problems associated with them .
The reason why many people here vote against them is only their high water cobtent versus very low protein content , which makes them less than half effective for growing fish .
I doubt that anyone suspect pathogens in Artemia Salina mainly because they originate from high level saline waters (hence their name Salina ) a very unfriendly place for most of the common pathogens our discus encounter .
So ,Iahi 88 . You can feed frozen Artemia IMO , just don't count on them as a good food for growing young discus .
They are also thought to be good for preventing bloat and blockage in discus because of their high water content and some discus keepers go further believing they keep intestinal pathogens in check with the salt ingested when discus eats them .
Last edited by Filip; 05-26-2017 at 03:33 PM.
"You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it." -W.C.Fields
That is really interesting Filip, thanks for the information! I have been using them in my reef tank once in awhile. I can't remember where I had seen it most likely on this forum that Hikari was the brand to trust for cleanliness. So because of the salinity in their water it doesn't matter which brand you buy? Certainly good to know- Thanks!
"You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it." -W.C.Fields
Hikari is most referred and trusted mainly for the notorious blood worms , since they use a three folded sterilization proces that supposedly nuke all the pathogens in this notorious pathogen carrier.
Artemia Salina is not a pathogen carrier as bloodworms are , so there is no need for any special sterilization and preparment prior its use.
That's why it is safe to assume that where ever you buy Brine shrimps you do not have to worry about infecting your discus.
Thank you all for valuble information.
I use only beef heart. They might fedup of eating that.