Originally Posted by
Willie
Tubifex worms are full of disease. Eventually, your discus will get sick. I'd stay as far from that as I can.
Heart muscle is used because it's usually the leanest of all the tissues. The big hassle is to cut out all the valves, connective tissue and blood vessels, which are very tough. When I bought hearts from the supermarket, the resulting tissue was 1/3 the weight of what I started with. It was a very messy process and I stopped doing it. Now I buy beefheart from California Blackworms, a Simply sponsor. They have different versions with different additives. I just get the straight beef heart. They come in 1-LB sheets. I cut them into cubes (1/2" X 1/2") and freeze them.
The supermarkets in the Midwest also carry extra lean ground beef. There's a 97% lean (so less than 3% fat) grade that I used to simply freeze and feed. It took my fish a while to get used to eating it, but it worked fine. If I had bothered to run into through the food processor, they probably would have had no problem with it. Look for Excel brand in the meat department. They come in a tube.
Willie