I’m on day 9 of intentionally starving my discus and still won’t eat flake/pellets

[ExReefer]

They love FDBW’s and I’m seeing good growth, but I don’t want to rely on FDBW’s exclusively. They are costly and there’s no variety in their food.

It’s incredible on stubborn these fish can get. Two of the seven now eat flake, but the others won’t even make an effort to inhale it. How long should I persist? I concerned that after another week or so of not eating, stress will set in and lead to bigger problems.

I know this comes up a lot and some of you will tell me to keep persisting, but is it possible that some of these fish just won’t give in?

I rasied the water temp to 87F. I'm feeding ON Prime Reef and Tetra Bits.

[brewmaster15]

Day 9? Sorry but thats not something I would do... are you sure these fish are healthy? Usually only a few days are needed to get a healthy fish to eat something new.

If they won't eat flakes...no big deal there,my adults really don't ...Juvies will but its not a frenzy.

Try some other foods.

Can you post some pics?

-al

[Chad Hughes]

+1

I think I understand where you are going with the desire to get your fish to eat flake. It can be auto fed and is substantially cleaner and eaiser on tank maintenance. Sometimes discus just won't take flake.

If they are eating other dry foods as you mentioned, stick with what works. I have a lot of tanks and the diet varies between them. Keep the diet varied as much as possible and you should see pretty good results.

Processed food products can get pretty expensive especially when you have multiple tanks with 20, 30, 40, 100+ discus. I make beefheart for that very reason. For about $30 a month I can feed over 200 fish. I could never do that by purchasing foods. Two benefits to that are obviously the cost plus the ability to tailor the food to what you like.

Anyway, I wouldn't starve them any longer.

Best of luck!

[ExReefer]

I know it’s crazy, but I’m really trying to break them of just eating your FDBW’s. They eat beefheart and bloodworms, but no flake of pellets. Don’t get me wrong, FDBW’s are great, but highly addictive. I should have also added that the other reason I’m doing this is to prepare for a two week vacation. I want to set up my auto feeder with a dry food while I’m gone. However, I need them eating a dry food before I leave so I’m starting the process 60 days in advance. FDBW’s clump up too much in my auto feeder and block the opening.

I should add that a few of them are picking and eating the live plants in tank. I have bunch of Wisteria and they seem to like this plant. That’s probably not helping the transition because they are not truly starving.

I can assure you they are healthy. My one pair in the tank has even spawned throughout this experiment. The others continue to greet me at the front of the tank and show good color, but obviously, this cannot go on indefinitely.

I’m about ready to give up and just face the fact that some discus won’t give in. I don’t know how others in this forum have done it. Nine days is stressing me out. It’s as if they have never seen flake or pellets. The stop and look at them, but then swim right by.

[jball1125]

You can also add vitamins to the fdbw if you want them to get a little extra nutrition. My fish usually take to the prime reef flakes after a couple of days but I still have a couple of stuburn ones that wont touch them.

9 days is a bit extreme, if you have adults the damage won't be as bad but if they aren't full grown you probably won't get them to their full potential.

Another alternative is to feed the flakes as the first meal when they are most hungry. And the fdbw as the last meal to insure they get some food.

[ExReefer]

Another alternative is to feed the flakes as the first meal when they are most hungry. And the fdbw as the last meal to insure they get some food.

Thanks, but I tried this first. They just ignore the flake in the morning. I’m going to do another large WC and try again later tonight. If still nothing, I’m giving up. These fish were (and still are) very robust to prior to this experiment. I was feeding FDBW’s 4-5 times a day and they were growing like mad. I’m not too worried about them not growing to their full potential because they didn’t eat for nine days. None of them are under 4” and some are 6”+.

I guess the worst case is I can just feed them their favorite foods like crazy up until my vacation and let them starve while I’m gone. It won’t be much worse than what I’m doing now.

I really thought this would be easier. They were eating well and extremely healthy nine days ago so I figured that would have best time to try this experiment. I guessed wrong.

[brewmaster15]

I know it’s crazy, but I’m really trying to break them of just eating your FDBW’s.

Well thats not good for business! Lol

Seriously though,
What Pellets have you tried to date? you may have luck with a different pellet.

-al

[ExReefer]

Well thats not good for business! Lol

Seriously though,
What Pellets have you tried to date? you may have luck with a different pellet.

-al

I know, but I'm still going to purchase FDBW's. That food is sooooo clean and my fish go nuts for it. Too nuts. I've seen good growth too.

Just the Tetra Bits so far. I seriously think these fish are getting by with eating the live plants. Nature forces them to find another food source. The more I think about it, this is probably what's preventing them from eating the flake/pellet. They are getting nutrition from the plants.

I guess they can just pick off the plants while I'm on vacation.

[brewmaster15]

Try some other pellets... I use ocean nutrition formula 1 here,sizesmall, others use NLS 1mm,some use pellets from angelsplus.

tetrabits are Okay nutritionally but theres many options,some nutritionally superior(compare labels)..just because they won't take one pellet..doesn'tmean they won't take all pellets...experiment and you'll find one they like.

hth,
al

[pinoysport]

I just got the fry starter pellets. they work good and my fish like it.

[mathao]

when you feed the fdbw feed only a little bit of it with some flake or pellet food and see if they would eat some of the flake or pallet.

[Bagxter]

Mine didn't accepted pellets at the begging, just a frozen food mix (beefheart, fish, etc)
What I did was to melt some pellets in my hand with some water drops
Then I mixed this "papilla" with the other mix food. First just a little, then more. At the end they were eating the pellets... but from my hand, not the dry pellet, but this melted "papilla". Just after taht, they started eating the dry pellets. Now they talke even flakes or anything.

Do they eat from your hand already?? because I think this is important too... they associate it and try to eat anything that I have on my fingers

Good luck, and I don't think starving them is necesary...

[Foxfire]

You should try the Hikari gold pellets - my discus go crazy over them. And yes, they will eat out of my hand but they are still young and eat five/six times a day and are always hungrey.