Thoughts on feeding only worms??

[ChaTrain57]

About 3 months ago I purchased 3 pairs of discus from a local breeder who strictly fed frozen blood and blackworms. So, when I brought them home and had them in the quarantine tank, they refused every bit of beefheart, brine shrimp, flake/crisp, pellet that I could think of, and will only eat worms. They eat like absolute pigs and have wonderful color and are quite sociable, they apparently are just extremely picky eaters. My father and I have always had a discus tank up and running ever since I can remember, and I've never had a discus that flat out refuses to eat anything but worms before. I've usually used worms as a dinner treat, mixing some in with beefheart, and crisps/flakes or brine shrimp in the morning. It's not that I mind feeding them the worms, I'm just a bit worried about nutrition for them. I'm using the HiKari brand that are supposedly vitamin enriched and all that jazz, but, like I said, I'm a bit skeptical that my fish are getting their proper nutrition.

I would greatly appreciate anyone's input on this, because I'm absolutely stumped!

[William Palumbo]

Hi...if you brought breeding pairs, and the breeder only fed them FBW and live CBW then it should be just fine for you to do it. I would think fish fed that diet for that long would really be hard to get them to eat anything else....other than starving them for a bit. Though a diet with some type of plant/algae in it would be good in addition to the worms. My breeders usually will only get worms as well...is much cleaner to feed in a breeding tank. People feed ALL kinds of foods and diets on here....the bottom line is no one knows EXACTLY what a Discus diet should consist of. We just feed what we know to work. And if you have some healthy adult breeding sized Discus...fed only worms...then that diet worked for those fish and should continue to do so...Bill

[Eddie]

I've always wanted to see how a healthy juvenile would turn out on a diet exclusively on FBW.

Eddie

[ChaTrain57]

Thanks for the input guys, I guess that the best thing for me to do is try and keep giving them an assorted diet and see if they ever do come around to varying their diet!

[kenhappen2u]

i would not suggest feeding only one type of food exclusively ....it cant be good for the fish in the long term and may even promote HITH (hole in the head) or other health conditions .

when i feed my discus flake, pellets and freeze dried krill , or any food that is not live , frozen or have some bulk to it , i noticed that only about 1/3 of the fish eat the flake & pellets , most of it just floats right by thier face and they show no intrest in it , but when it sinks and sits on the bottom of the tank for a couple of min . More of the fish start to pick at the food on the bottom after they figure out noting else will be comming and the smell of food in the tank gets them seeking out food .... if you keep doing this i think you will find that they will start to pick at the food and get more/different nutrients and vitamins that thay just cant get from feeding one type of food exclusively.

this may not be the case for adults or breeding pairs . as i have no experience with feeding breeding pairs /


Ken

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

I've always wanted to see how a healthy juvenile would turn out on a diet exclusively on FBW.

Eddie

A member here did it a few years ago just to see what would happen. If I remember correctly he grew juvenilles from 2.5" up to adults feeding nothing but FBW. They grew, but at a slower than average rate and their colors werent the best. Their fecundity wasnt the best either if I recall.

-Ryan

[Eddie]

Thanks Ryan, really appreciate it.

Eddie

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Thanks for the input guys, I guess that the best thing for me to do is try and keep giving them an assorted diet and see if they ever do come around to varying their diet!

IF you cannot get them to switch over to something different, they will do fine since they are adults and any nutrition they will use for maintenance purposes (except for the females). I would however suggest that you would supplement/soak the food in a vitamin mixture and/or a marine fish oil. Marine fish oil because it would provide sufficient fats necessary for the females to produce eggs properly. Eggs are biologically very expensive and require a lot from the female. The added marine oil/fat would be very beneficial to them.

-Ryan

[ShinShin]

A discus will not starve itself to death if there is food available. Read Heiko's book for evidence of that statement. Don't feed the fish for awhile, then offer them a different food that you want them to eat. They will eat it eventually if you don't cave-in first. I had discus go a month without eating before the decided that it was me, not them that chose the menu.

[ChaTrain57]

Thanks for all the great replies everyone! Strangely enough, yesterday I noticed that a couple of them actually started to eat beefheart without spitting it back out. They still don't touch the crisps/flakes or the brine shrimp, but, I'm hoping that since they started eating the beefheart that this is a start!!

[Eddie]

Try Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flake, its all red and all my fish take it well. It has some really good ingredients with 55.4% protein. My fish love it!

Eddie

[chromeheart]

a variety diet is best