Feeding grated, pure fish as a meal?

[Pudmuppy]

I admit, I haven't done a ton of reading on the different diet ideas here, but will do so soon! However, was wondering whether anyone feeds their discus on grated, frozen fish as a meal? Literally, taking a frozen fillet and using a cheesegrater of the appropriate size, straight into the water!

I want to feed a combination of foods; a good blackworm flake, Hans' flake, FDBW, beefheart cubes occasionally (the ones you buy at the petstore) Tetra color granules et all, as I find out what they prefer, and indeed eventually I think I will make my own food as well, but it did occur to me that one of those meals could be pure fish meat - I tend to have salmon, tilapia and shrimp in the freezer for myself anyway.

Would this work as one of the 4-6 meals a day for juveniles? Could it be used at a higher frequency, say 2 or three of the daily meals? Is it going to be messy and leave any oil traces in the water or will the filter kill that quickly? I will have some cories and scatters as well, so they will hopefully catch the dregs

Thanks guys!

[jeep]

You could give it a try but I would recommend salt water fish to eliminate any possibility of parasites. I would also recommend not using an oily/fatty type fish.

[Mando]

I admit, I haven't done a ton of reading on the different diet ideas here, but will do so soon! However, was wondering whether anyone feeds their discus on grated, frozen fish as a meal? Literally, taking a frozen fillet and using a cheesegrater of the appropriate size, straight into the water!

I want to feed a combination of foods; a good blackworm flake, Hans' flake, FDBW, beefheart cubes occasionally (the ones you buy at the petstore) Tetra color granules et all, as I find out what they prefer, and indeed eventually I think I will make my own food as well, but it did occur to me that one of those meals could be pure fish meat - I tend to have salmon, tilapia and shrimp in the freezer for myself anyway.

Would this work as one of the 4-6 meals a day for juveniles? Could it be used at a higher frequency, say 2 or three of the daily meals? Is it going to be messy and leave any oil traces in the water or will the filter kill that quickly? I will have some cories and scatters as well, so they will hopefully catch the dregs

Thanks guys!

Han's flakes... sounds like a hint

I did not know we had beef heart in cubes here. I've been dying to get my hands on the good heart from Stendker but they do not sell in the US. I love how they are individually packaged. I'm afraid to buy Han's 2lb portion since I'm not sure if my discus will go for it.

[LizStreithorst]

Brian made a good point that I hadn't considered. Salt water fish would definitely be safer. I want to find out what the fish think of it. To my knowledge nobody has tried this. It sounds like a good idea.

[jeep]

Here's a thread Paul started last year. It may have some bearing http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...fat&highlight=

[LizStreithorst]

That was a great thread that I had forgotten about. I wish Paul would come back. He had so much to offer.

[danotaylor]

Paul grew up some thick discus on his salmon recipe. Salmon is considered an oil fish though, so I wonder if the omegas they're known for are easily digestible for discus?? Clearly land animal fat doesn't do them too well...

[Filip]

I regulary feed grated Salmon , grated BH and grated shrimps to my discus . I tend to rinse the grated meat chunks with lukewarm water to get it clean from blood and oil before pouring it in the tank .
Salmon is the greasiest of them all and fouls the water so be carefull with that . Ive read that wildcaught salmon as opposed to farm raised should be lot less greasier but I cant get my hands at it where I live.

[Mando]

I tried feeding salmon before and my fish rejected it. Maybe I can try that again and just mix bits with granules to see if they go for it. I guess you grate the salmon into tetra bite size granules? or do you grate strings of it kind of like worms? I guess it boils to preferences.

[Filip]

I tried feeding salmon before and my fish rejected it. Maybe I can try that again and just mix bits with granules to see if they go for it. I guess you grate the salmon into tetra bite size granules? or do you grate strings of it kind of like worms? I guess it boils to preferences.

I tend to grate bigger chunks because they are less messy . I defroze it under tap water for a few seconds to grate bigger worm like chunks because if it's too frozen the chunks are much smaller and ends up everywhere in my tank instead of discus mouths .
Mine loves Salmon and beef heart chunks .Just give them some time and they'll get used to it .

[Mando]

I tend to grate bigger chunks because they are less messy . I defroze it under tap water for a few seconds to grate bigger worm like chunks because if it's too frozen the chunks are much smaller and ends up everywhere in my tank instead of discus mouths .
Mine loves Salmon and beef heart chunks .Just give them some time and they'll get used to it .

What's a good reference for the size of the chunks?

[Filip]

What's a good reference for the size of the chunks?

I tried to make a feeding video yesterday Armando , but my phone battery went dead at he same moment
I'll try again tonight and this is what I've managed to take photos of , before it went off :

BH and Salmon , Grater and a chunk size :

IMG_20190927_225819.jpg
IMG_20190927_230031.jpg

Chunks size should be dependable from discus size .Mine are about 6 " so I tend to make bigger chunks to keep the water cleaner .

[Mando]

I appreciate your help! I will give it a try today. Thank you for the reference.

[Filip]

I just found two older grated food feeding videos on my YouTube channel Armando , so ill put them here for a chunk size reference :

http://youtu.be/_SCvNtw_12s

http://youtu.be/IGTX7khlWJQ

[Pudmuppy]

Wow, thanks everyone, some great stuff here. I think I will give it a go for sure, I always have fish in the house and normally frozen so it's at hand for experimentation. I will try and stick to ocean fish, but I do have salmon and tilapia around as well, also lots of shrimp. I love those chunky plates of Paul's!