Best Frozen Foods???

[Derelique]

If I'm feeding almost exclusively frozen foods, which of the following foods easily available to me would you think were most advisable overall? I don't mind rotating between different foods, but I was wondering which the forum thinks would be the best staples and if any are best avoided?

Aremia enriched with spirulina and garlic.

Black mosquito larvae.

White Mosquito Larvae

Cultivated Bloodworms (Raised under clean conditions)

Blackworms

Tubifex

Daphnia

Krill Superba (Chopped or whole, 5 cm in size whole)

Pacific Krill

Mysis Shrimp

Cichlid Mix - Fish meat, bloodworms, daphnia, mysis, cockles

Discus Quintet - Beef heart, artemia, krill, spinach, and turkey heart.

Discusfood - Beef heart and spinach

Fish eggs - Pure marine fish eggs 600-800 micron in size

Prawns - finely chopped

Cockles

Mussels

Lobster Eggs

Gammarus Shrimp

Calanus

[Derelique]

Further, these are for adolescent and adult discus in a planted tank, and I'm not sure if a few of them such as the eggs are of a reasonable size and composition without having to try each of them out.

I would by the way perhaps prefer something which perhaps doesn't fall apart and/or make a mess like beefheart and some of the manufactured mixes do. And I'm not going to making my own food and do like the convenience and quality of frozen food. These particular frozen foods are gamma irradiated, so shouldn't contain nasties. I'm a bit wary of something like Tubifex still if it hasn't been cultivated under clean uncontaminated conditions. I'd be doing smaller supplementary feedings of pellet food on a timer during the day as well, but consider my frozen food to be the main food.

I've read a few threads however, with people being wary of certain foods such as bloodworms, as discus can get hooked on these.

I haven't yet been able to obtain the nutritional breakdown yet for each of these by the way.

And I searched, but if I missed a thread on this topic then please point me there. Thanks for the help!

[Joe]

I use White Mosquito Larvae, and it induced spawing in the past. My discus love it

Joe

[snakeskin blue]

I feed frozen blood worm tubiflex and flake food I find if u feed bloodworms to often they may not eat much of anything els and I doubt its healthy to overeat one specific kind

[Argentum]

You can use this mix and it contains everything they need Proteins, vitamins, minerals, fat & carbs. color and immune enhancements and attractants.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?113366-My-20-Component-Beef-Heart-Mix

The only thing you might want to feed occasionally is live food or at least frozen blood worms as a treat (they are not nutritious)

[Derelique]

I must admit I'm not crazy about making my own foods, such as beefheart mix. Whenever I've used foods which are a mix as such, I'd found them to be very messy as they fall apart into tiny grains, a lot of which are therefore not eaten.

In comparison, flash frozen foods such as bloodworms, gut-loaded brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, etc, seem to keep their whole-body form until eaten, and therefore presumably keep most of the nutrients inside until swallowed.

Joe, did you feed exclusively with White Mosquito Larvae?

I'd like to aim for maybe half a dozen different frozen foods to rotate through, such as perhaps the following:
- Enriched Artemia
- Mosquito Larvae
- Cultivated bloodworms or blackworms
- Mysis shrimp
- Krill

If members here haven't had experience with some of the others, then maybe I'll just have to try out each one in turn to see what the discus and I like and don't like. And I might want to compare a few of their nutritional values as well.

I thought something such as mosquito larvae might be a nutritious staple of the type which discus had evolved to deal with in the wild, and therefore a good choice. Regardless, Discus do seem to thrive on beefheart, regardless of the fact that they're likely not successfully feeding on the hearts of cows in the wild...

I've heard that certain nutrients in bloodworms aren't digested very well by discus in any case. But was hoping others might have practical experience with some others of these.

[rey29]

Does frozen bloodworms helps discus to color up?

[MendoMan]

What is the advantage of adding crab sticks? You know that they are not crab, only highly processed and colored low quality fish.
You can use this mix and it contains everything they need Proteins, vitamins, minerals, fat & carbs. color and immune enhancements and attractants.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?113366-My-20-Component-Beef-Heart-Mix

The only thing you might want to feed occasionally is live food or at least frozen blood worms as a treat (they are not nutritious)

[jazzon]

Quote Originally Posted by Argentum View Post
You can use this mix and it contains everything they need Proteins, vitamins, minerals, fat & carbs. color and immune enhancements and attractants.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...Beef-Heart-Mix

The only thing you might want to feed occasionally is live food or at least frozen blood worms as a treat (they are not nutritious)

I would avoid crab sticks, my friend works in fish processing factory, you don't want to know the cr*ps they put in crab sticks. Use the real thing for your discus.

[Gre a]

beef hart mix

[Gre a]

and also some frozen shrimp

[Derelique]

What kind of shrimp though? Brine? Krill? Mysis? Gammarus? Pre-cooked grocery store cold-water shrimp? Tiger shrimp? Rock Shrimp?... Are any of those a challenge for discus to fully digest?

[adapted]

What kind of shrimp though? Brine? Krill? Mysis? Gammarus? Pre-cooked grocery store cold-water shrimp? Tiger shrimp? Rock Shrimp?... Are any of those a challenge for discus to fully digest?

Frozen mysis shrimp are an excellent food. My fish are a tad finicky and they like them quite a bit. They about ten dollars a pound at Ken's Fish. ($24 shipping, so buy some Hikari frozen bloodworms while you're at it.)

[c_sir]

Hello Derelique, I wanted to ask, have you actually tried any of the frozen foods you mentioned since this thread? I am also not a make your mix person and was looking for info. Did you compare the nutritional values?

[sal3011]

Just tried frozen Bloodworm and beef heart mix.. Wish had more easier access to other live food!

[Derelique]

I haven't compared the nutritional information recently, nor do I recall what they were before. I can't say I've ever experienced any adverse effects from any, but it would be hard to pinpoint it as that.

But to-date, with different fish species I have used the following:

Artemia, enriched and not - generally like it as with the right brands it is relatively clean and whole.

Bloodworms - clean and is taken well.

Tubifex (live) - seemed okay, though I don't really enjoy the hassle and all

Daphnia - too small, and seemed to include a fair amount of uneaten 'crumbs'

Mysis - have used with reef tanks, was easy and relatively clean to feed.

Lobster eggs - had used for feeding corals in a reef tank recently, very small however and so I haven't tried with discus though it might work with fry.