What foods to avoid?

[brewmaster15]

My limited experience… and I feed Hikari frozen food only… daphnia, mysis shrimp, tubifex… all bad… just too small. I keep my discus on brine shrimps, blood worms, krill and white worms. The one I’m trying to feed them only occasionally (before Saturday water change) is beef heart… makes a mess on my anubias that is growing on the feeding place. (Mistake I’ve made when planting the tank)

Hey Adam, I'm curious on the Mysis. There are alot of species of mysis. In North America Mysis relicta is a common one.It comes from cold water lakes. Its size is much much larger than the Brine shrimp you are feeding and nutritionally its a powerhouse. Do you know what species or if those mysis you have there are fresh water or salt species?

[Adamski77]

Al… I’ll check and let you know… no idea what it is exactly… thought Hikari would have only one type… but maybe Chinese version is different.
Sometimes I would drop little bit of mysis shrimp or daphnia for my cardinals… but they also grew up little bit and prefer to chew something more juicy.

[Tshethar]

There are definitely some old food threads on here you might look through, Raul... I know I have in the past. My discus have enjoyed the Hikari bio-gold as a staple and I personally think that's a good option. Al's freeze-dried Australian blackworms are also a huge hit and have been a daily use item. (Fun to feed by hand, too.) On those, I've tried the California ones, too--probably when Al was out--and the discus didn't take to them nearly as well. Also got some freeze-dried Hikari bloodworms as an occasional treat and made sure I didn't handle them directly.

Al is right that some foods are hit-and-miss and it may take time to get the accustomed to some pelleted or flake food if you go in that direction. (Personally, I think it is helpful for them to be able and willing to take at least one type of food that a) doesn't foul the tank; and b) could work in an auto-feeder should that be necessary or desirable. I used to use NLS cichlid pellets for Tanganyikans and they worked well for them, but I seem to remember trying something from them and the discus weren't interested. Same for Omega One as I recall. I also didn't have great luck with the Cobalt discus flakes, which I think has more fillers than other options.

Some things that have worked that I picked up from old threads have included some (but not all) bulk flakes from Ken's Fish, some flakes from Angels Plus, and flakes from Brine Shrimp Direct. I tried making my own seafood mix but it didn't bind well, was really messy, and was a larger quantity than I needed. I also tried Repashy foods. While other fish, plecos, etc., will eat them, the discus didn't. I tried some Tropical foods once for small fish and may try their wild mix for my next group. Sera is another brand I might consider, along with Hikari vibra bites. Lastly, some folks have looked into foods with Black Soldier Fly larvae (e.g., Fluval Bug Bites). Haven't tried those myself but could be an option.

Hope you have fun with it. One thing I'm going to have to watch myself is making sure whatever I get stays fresh. It's easy to get a whole lot of different things for variation, and then realize it will take months to use it all, during which time it will lose nutritional value.

[Adamski77]

Hey Adam, I'm curious on the Mysis. There are alot of species of mysis. In North America Mysis relicta is a common one.It comes from cold water lakes. Its size is much much larger than the Brine shrimp you are feeding and nutritionally its a powerhouse. Do you know what species or if those mysis you have there are fresh water or salt species?

Al... back from vacations now and had a chance to take a photo of the mysis shrimps I got. Here it is... though I read all of it and doesn't really say what kind of mysis shrimp it is. After de-frosting it's way too small for my size of fish.

Mysis Shrimp.jpg

Mysis Shrimp_2.jpg

[brewmaster15]

Adam welcome back from Paradise!


I've used those before they are a smaller species of mysis than "relicta" . I don't know this for 100% but I am fairly sure they are a marine species. My discus wpuld not tale them but would the freshwater Mysis relicta.
Al

[Adamski77]

Thanks for advice... I'll keep searching for different once. Was very helpful you told me there are different kinds. Appreciate another lesson.

[Willie]

...it was hard to transition them to a wet and raw diet once they were used to a dry diet. But that's because the dry diets are filled with carbs, but eventually I got them onto a wet/raw diet and they are much healthier and happier...

Having worked with small animal nutritionists to formulate pet foods, I disagree with this statement. Nothing about a wet, raw diet is any better than dry food. It's formulated that way to appeal to owners. Meat is far more nutritious when cooked then raw. Things like paleo diets are fads with no scientific validation, but a lot of hype.

[Vanman]

Willie,

Does this mean that we need to cook our BH mix?

[Willie]

Willie,

Does this mean that we need to cook our BH mix?

I don't know what it means, Gary. Fish digest food differently than land animals so I don't want to make any assumptions, but human nutrition significantly improved after the discovery of fire.

One of the best discus breeders I know - someone who no longer posts here - cooks his BH mix. I was visiting when he cooked it, so I know that's what he did.

[Vanman]

I don't know what it means, Gary. Fish digest food differently than land animals so I don't want to make any assumptions, but human nutrition significantly improved after the discovery of fire.

One of the best discus breeders I know - someone who no longer posts here - cooks his BH mix. I was visiting when he cooked it, so I know that's what he did.

That would make it much cleaner to feed. I always do a large WC an hour or two after feeding BH. I might use Agar Agar in my next batch to see if it hold together better than it does with Knox galatin.

[brewmaster15]

Gary what is your BH recipe?

Al

[Raul-7]

Having worked with small animal nutritionists to formulate pet foods, I disagree with this statement. Nothing about a wet, raw diet is any better than dry food. It's formulated that way to appeal to owners. Meat is far more nutritious when cooked then raw. Things like paleo diets are fads with no scientific validation, but a lot of hype.

With all due respect, this is erroneous on so many levels.

1. Cats have a poor thirst drive and derive most of their water from their diet.
2. Their natural prey [mice] are 70% moisture, dry food is 10% moisture
3. Cats do not have great kidneys and as result one of the leading causes of premature death in cats is CKD
4. Raw diet mimics their natural diet and has the correct ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates [5% or less]
5. Commercial dry foods [except for Wysong Epigen, Young Again Zero Cat, etc.] are loaded with carbohydrates like rice, wheat, corn, etc. which have no place in a cat's diet. They are obligate carnivores and derive no benefit from carbohydrates.

https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/f...304_00039.html

[brewmaster15]

..and then theres wet cat food in a can. Cooked food. and high in water. Best of both worlds provided its nutritionally appropriate.

Probably should nudge this conversation back towards fish.. though I do love cats.