Flake Training - Discus Fish Won't Eat!

[jamesx]

Hello discus world! This is my very first post here as a discus newbie. I have to say that I've found this forum recently and I wished I could be here sooner. There are just so many great posts here that are just priceless to me.

I'm a newbie to discus keeping but I'm not super new to fish keeping. I had a rainbow fish tank that was up and running for a year without any fish loss. That gave me a bit of confidence to jump into the world of discus keeping.

I recently got rid of all of my rainbows and bought 6 discus (4" in size) to my 55 gallon bare bottom tank. I made the first mistake here by buying my discus from a not-so-good local breeder. Anyways, the fish have been acclimated into my tank for 6 days now. The breeder told me that the fish were fed on homemade beef heart mix and I needed to continue to do so by purchasing the same food from him. I thought that didn't work for me as I don't have the time to feed three to four times a day, and the frozen beef heart just won't go into my automatic fish feeder. Therefore, I wanted to train the discus for flake food with the starvation method.

On day 1 & 2, the fish were so skittish that they refused to come out from tank corner for any flake. On day 3, one discus came out for flakes aggressively, four discus tried but spitted out immediately, and one poor guy just won't touch anything at all. Right now it's day 6, the situation improved a little bit. The fish that accepted the flakes has become the king of the tank. The other four discus that were hesitating started to eat flakes in a small amount, and they won't aggressively go for flakes. The last discus that didn't touch any flake still remain the same, and it starts to show significantly more pepper on his body. Also, all of the fish are still skittish when I come close to the tank, although they are better than their first day. I do 70% water change daily to keep the water super clean and the nitrate level never get above 5ppm.


Here is my question. Should I continue on the flake training or just give in with beef heart? I'm so worried that some of my fish just won't recover...



Thanks in advance!

[LizStreithorst]

If your tank is BB you can put small sinking pellets in the auto feeder for every other feeding (some auto feeders make this possible, others do not.)

[jamesx]

Thank you Liz! I actually tried pellets on the other day, and even my most aggressive discus wouldn't touch them. The pellets are 2mm in size, and I wonder if this is too small for discus' attention?

[LizStreithorst]

2 mm should be fine. If they're used to beef heart only the change to other foods will take time. They're not about to let themselves starve. From what you said in your first post the problem shouldn't be parasites, but it might be. Keep trying for another week and see how it goes.

[jamesx]

Thanks again Liz! I will hold on to feeding dry food for one more week then. Is there any known dry food that discus are more likely to take? I use Omega One Freshwater Flakes.

[LizStreithorst]

Would freeze dried black worms or freeze dried blood worms work in your feeder? Those are the most delectable foods. Your Discus are not used to feeding from the top. Even with those dry foods it will take them time to get used to feeding from the top.

[jamesx]

Hi Liz! Just wanna update you on my discus. They all take flakes now!! On day 7, it's like a magic that all the fish all the sudden start to battle for the flakes!

Now I wonder... Is flake food good enough to have successful growth (6"+ or even 7" in size) ?

I've been reading on this forum and other sites like crazy these days. It seems that discus feeding is really a controversial topic. Some says they had great growout with flakes only and beef heart mix is not at all necessary. There are also lots of others who emphasize on how import it is to feed beef heart mix in order to get massive fish.

What's your opinion on that? Perhaps I should start a new thread in the Food section?

[LizStreithorst]

I've never used flake alone with Discus so I can't say one way or the other.

[jamesx]

I see. What do you feed your discus as main food?

[LizStreithorst]

I only feed 3 times a day unless I have babies to feed. I use flake in the morning when the fish are the most hungry. In the afternoon I feed sinking pellets. In the even I feed Al's Australian black worms.

My flake and pellets come from a hobbyist who makes his own food. I like them better than any others because his foods are made fresh with fresh ingredients. He doesn't advertise, but he does have a website that he never updates. I met him at my other fish forum.

[Jack L]

BH is just cheap protein

if you've been reading, you'll surmise that result and opinions vary

i've read that some grow out on cheap tetra flakes. just get a quality food that has non flour and wheat as all the primary ingredients. that is my advice.

if you want to do BH, you can, you don't have to.

[Willie]

You're doing great - bare bottom, large water changes, etc. The only mistake, as you say, was starting with questionable stock. That said, keep the water changes coming. It may take a while for the discus to acclimate to flake food, but they will. You're doing two things simultaneously: changing their food and changing their surroundings. It's natural for them to take time to adjust. Sometimes it helps to raise the tank temperature to 90F to make them more hungry.

Most of us, myself included, have transitioned from flakes to pellets and frozen food with time. However, I have seen adult discus raised solely on flake food. They don't quite get that "linebacker" look that you get with beef heart, but they were perfectly good looking specimens. If anything, they were slimmer and looked more like wild type fish.

Just sit back and enjoy the hobby! Willie

[Mando]

Willie, Just noticed your signature! That’s gold

I fed flakes before but I found it messy and hard to feed through my eheim auto feeder. I went to the tetra color bits 3x’s a day. Right before work, I feed beef heart in the mornings and when I get home, I feed Al’s fdbw. I learned that with any varied diet the fish will adjust and take on to any foods going forward. They will not have a “favorite” food.

I also feed my Juvies live black worms daily and I feed all tanks frozen blood worms. Not everyone feeds live or frozen blood works because of the risks involved; can introduce pathogens. I’ve gotten brave over the years and, now, even the maintank gets some live worms. I feed it as a treat once a week.

One advice I can give is to stay calm. Fish take a while to acclimate some more than others. Being they are a school fish, it just takes one to make the leap for the others to follow.

[jamesx]

You're doing great - bare bottom, large water changes, etc. The only mistake, as you say, was starting with questionable stock. That said, keep the water changes coming. It may take a while for the discus to acclimate to flake food, but they will. You're doing two things simultaneously: changing their food and changing their surroundings. It's natural for them to take time to adjust. Sometimes it helps to raise the tank temperature to 90F to make them more hungry.

Most of us, myself included, have transitioned from flakes to pellets and frozen food with time. However, I have seen adult discus raised solely on flake food. They don't quite get that "linebacker" look that you get with beef heart, but they were perfectly good looking specimens. If anything, they were slimmer and looked more like wild type fish.

Just sit back and enjoy the hobby! Willie

Thanks a lot Willie! So glad to see great advices coming from masters like you. This is what makes this place so great to new discus keeper like me!

[jamesx]

Willie, Just noticed your signature! That’s gold

I fed flakes before but I found it messy and hard to feed through my eheim auto feeder. I went to the tetra color bits 3x’s a day. Right before work, I feed beef heart in the mornings and when I get home, I feed Al’s fdbw. I learned that with any varied diet the fish will adjust and take on to any foods going forward. They will not have a “favorite” food.

I also feed my Juvies live black worms daily and I feed all tanks frozen blood worms. Not everyone feeds live or frozen blood works because of the risks involved; can introduce pathogens. I’ve gotten brave over the years and, now, even the maintank gets some live worms. I feed it as a treat once a week.

One advice I can give is to stay calm. Fish take a while to acclimate some more than others. Being they are a school fish, it just takes one to make the leap for the others to follow.

Thank you Mando! Just an update on my tank. Most of my fish have gotten used to flake food with no problem except one possibly stunted discus. I will have to deal with it in future. Right now I feed my discus 6 times a day. 1st time in the morning with Fluval Bug Bites pellets, 4 times during the day on Cobalt Breeder Pro flakes with an automatic feeder while I'm away, and one time on homemade beef heart mix just before the daily 90% water change. I find most of my fish have adapted to this pattern with no problem, although on a few occasions one of my heavy eaters got bloated for having too much flakes. I wonder if it was because of the flake ingredients that caused constipation (salmon fish meal being listed as the 1st ingredient on the bottle).