Food Recipes...

[stir-fry]

I can't get beefheart from my lfs anymore as his supplier is in the states and all beef imports have been banned from down there.
I guess it's time to head to the grocery store and make my own.

[CanadianGuy]

Thanks Haywire...

I didn't think anyone was ever going to respond to that question!

Agar Agar is a seaweed extract commonly used as a desert in asia. You can add any kind of fruit with sugar added and serve after chilling. A good summer treats under a hot sun. It acts as a laxative to improve bowl movement as well. Most breeders are using them for the beefheart if shrimps are not included in the ingredients. A very cheap source of geletine. Cost a dollar per oz. in a Chinese Grocery store and it's good enough for 40 cups of water. It's safe to use in discus food esp. species which is known for constipation or large feces like the BD. Ask for " Dye Choi Go" in Cantonese. " Dar Chai Kow" in Mandarin. Otherwise the store keepers will just stare at you and say " No" "No" " No".HTH
Jimmy.

[red]

Here is a recipe from Amazon Aquatics that I have been using for about 12 yrs. and my fish really seem to like it

Ingredients:

one lb. fresh fish(white meat)
one lb. fresh scallops
two lb. fresh shrimp (remove most of the shell)
six oz. tetra cichlid food sticks
three oz. wheat germ (plain)
three large raw eggs
one 14 oz. can peas (no salt added)
four tablespoons of bone meal (garden supplies, make sure it is pure bone meal and has no additives)
eight tablespoons spirulina powder (found in health food stores or O.S.I.)
four talbespoons powdered vitamins ("all-1" from a health food store.)

The above ingredients will make about five and one half lbx. of fish food. The consistency will be too thick for a blender, so use a food processor, and process the ingredients in the order below to allow proper chopping and mixing. The quantity of food will be larger than the food processor can hold at one time. You will need four large bowls to hold the ingredients during the following procedure.

1. Place the six oz. of tetra cichlid food sticks and the three oz. of wheat germ in water so that it just covers the material, and let it soak for several minutes to soften.

2. Squeeze out any excess water, then put it into the food processor and process it until it is smooth and slightly thinner than peanut butter (add a little water while processing if it is too thick)

3. Divide the material evenly into the four bowls.

4. Process the one lb. of raw fish and the one lb. of raw scallops until smooth.

5. Divide the material evenly into the four bowls.

6. Put the two lbs. of raw shrimp and the three eggs into the processor and process until smooth, with no lumps or shreds.

7. Divide the material evely into the four bowls.

8. Next put all of the contents of one of the bowls into the processor.

9. While processing, add one tablespoon of the bone meal, 1/4 of the can of peas, one tablespoon of powdered vitamins, and two tablespoons of spirulina powder.

10. Process until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

11. Repeat steps 8 to 10 for the other three bowls.

12. Place about 4 ozs. of the finished mixture into a 7s8 ziplock freezer bag.

13. Zip all but one corner and slowly flatten to about one eighth of an inch, while pushing all of the air out through the open corner.

14. Close the seal and freeze the mixture (freezing it thin like this allows you to break off the amount of food that you need, while still frozen.)


This food tries to meet all of the dietary needs of discus. It can be fed to fish from three weeks old up to adults. it is accepted by most on the first or second feedings. The ingredients in these proportions make a paste that sinds slowly and stays together extremely well without gelatin.

[brew1]

Hi all,

I'm picking up 10 lbs of fresh BH today from the local meat market and was reviewing some of the recipes for new ideas/ingredients.

In the past I have simply used the ground beefheart mixed in a food processor with shrimp, fish flakes, vitamins, gelatin and spirulina powder added.

I see the majority of the BH recipes in this thread include vegetables and/or fruit. What reason or benefit would there be to adding ingredients such as spinach, peas or bananas to a BH mixture?

Since the fruit and vegetables have no nutritional benefit for a discus, are these items being added to provide a cleansing fiber for the discus digestive system? Kinda like dumping in some Metamusil to the BH mixture

Should I be concerned about adding fiber and possibly creating a digestive system blockage and bloating?

Just wondering what the reasoning is behind these ingredients before I consider adding them to my BH mixture.

Thanks in advance for your response.

[Fishlvr4]

Just curious about the additions/benefits of adding garlic, eggs, banana, and paprika to your food mix? I can understand adding the rest.

[jcasti]

To all:
Francisco Borrero posted that he used Gel-Food from Aquatic Ecosystems in lieu of gelatin. He says it binds better. Has anybody have had any experience with the Ge-food. What amount do you use.
I am a new Discus Keeper. I have kept killies and guppies for many years.
Thanks
Joe

[rcubeiii]

Regarding use of vegetables in beefheart mixes, there is no need as discus cannot digest them. Please see the article at the following link, which also has a good recipe:

http://article.dphnet.com/cat-01/beefheart1.shtml

[Snapper]

I use 1 lb Beef Heart plus 1/2 lb fish, 1/2 lb shrimp and grind together. Press to 1/4 inch between wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze 30 min os so. Then use large knife to cut into 1/2 cubes and place into bags and freeze. To feed, grab several cubes and toss into the tank.

Add whateverelse you want into the basic mix.

Snapper

[roger]

My beefheart mix includes cooked spinach (the frozen stuff you get at the store).

I have watched my discus devour a live plant before (water sprite) all the way to the main stock. That was the wild discus and I have said they will eat anything that gets near the tank. Since Im not going to take the poop out of the tank and anaylze it Ill just suggest that discus do need a certain amount of vegatable matter in their diet. Im not talking much here but there has to be something missing from most common mixes that plants tend to provide. Hell for all I know they just wanted the roughage.

The formula I used is based on the one that Gabe Possada posted. I try to replace flake food with krill meal whenever possible.

Peace,
Roger

[Doug A]

This was my first time making a BH recipie. It took a few feedings before the fish went nuts over it. Well here is my recipie.

1 pound trimmed beefheart
1 pound raw shrimp
4 oz frozen krill
a small amount of frozen chopped spinach
4 cloves garlic
about 4 oz flake food (spirulina, ON formula1, ON prime reef, ON brine shrimp +, HBH seafood lovers)
1tsp powdered reptile vitamins
1tsp Kent ZOE vitamins
several drops of Kent Garlic extreme
also added some frozen Cyclop-eeze

First I ground the beefheart, shrimp and krill through a meat grinder. Mixed them all together. The garlic, spinach and vitamins were turned into a paste using a food processor then added to the meat. Added the flake and cylop-eeze and mixed all together. This was then run through the meat grinder a second time. I put into quart size freezer bags about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Once frozen I broke off small pieces and put a few at a time into the food processor to be chopped into small bits. It comes out looking like Tetra color bits. Most pieces are small enough for 3" fish to eat whole.

Doug

[lisagariz]

Hello evryone, my dicscus meal consist of:

800gms-Beef heart
500gms-white fish
500gms-Mussel
300gms-Shrimp
300gms-salmon
400gms-spinich
One can of pees without the skin
1 apple Peeled
2 bannanas
1-green pepper
3 pices of garlic
20 pharmaton complex (vitamins)
Spirulina (the more the merier)
2-boild carrots

All these ingredients mixed and I use Agar-Agar To agglutinate it.
Its a sea weed 100% natural. To use it you have to pre heat the meal to 80º in order to agglutinete correctly.
One love direcly from Barcelona
Lisagariz

[NigelBond]

A coworker of mine recently told me that he adds a birth control pill to his mix. He says that it will enhance the colour of the discus. I personaly think this sounds kind of crazy.

Anybody here do that aswell?

Also when it comes to beef heart, my discus just wont eat it. I must admit though that i was just simply carving little peices from a frozen heart into the tank. If i use one of these recipies that you guys use, do you think the fish will like it better? At this pont all i feed is frozen blood worms. They wont even eat
Tetra ColorBits.

[jake]

Interesting recipes,

I am planning a similar, minus the beef heart but fish in its place,

basically:
salmon
shrimp,
other fish i.e. smelt
eggs,
green peas
fresh garlic
spirulina flakes
knox gelatin
artemia flakes

quantities of each proportionate to the above,

if the fish dont like it I will.

jake levi
Curran,MI

[paletka]

Hi,

I use Agar instate of gelatin, works well and is made from See algae.

Chris Z.
Windy City Discus