Feeding Beef heart

[greengirl]

Hi There,

I received about 20 nickel to quarter sized discus juvies about 2 months ago from a friend getting out of the hobby. They are all doing really great and have grown quite a bit since having them. I previously fed them crushed color enhancing and and black worm flakes. Then my friend gave me about 30 lbs of his leftover frozen beef heart slabs of fish food to feed to the discus. I have been trying to cut the slabs down to small little bits for my discus to eat. I am a little new to beef heart feeding, but I know the protein is really good for them. The discus have been enjoying the beef bits a lot and have grown even more in the few weeks I have been feeding it to them, but I noticed they are really struggling with tearing bites of the little chunks to eat (the chunks are already thawed). Could you please tell me if there are better methods to prepare frozen beef heart for feeding? These discus still range from almost silver dollar down to nickel sized, so their mouth sizes still vary. How do you prepare and feed beef heart?

Thank you.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Use a cheese grater and use the second largest side (if you have a 4-sided grater). Grate enough for a week and put in freezer bags or container. a few minutes before feeding, take it out and thaw a little bit.

[doublediscusjack]

I encourage you to use the cheese grater too, as DixucLoverJeff says. For a good many years, I simply took my frozen beefheart mix, directly from the freezer, and grated it on cheese grater, directly into tanks, with no problem, even though some said that it would be too cold for the fish to eat, etc., cause them harm from the cold, blah, blah, blah, which was all bull, as my discus never once had a problem with it. The key here, is to get a particular grater size that will grate into proper size for size of fish you are feeding. Try to get the pieces coming off the grater to look like short, small red worms, of an overall size that the discus can eat easily without any problems, which the Discus love, especially when it is put in water current from an aquarium filter. The moving red worm like pieces drives discus mad; they eat in a frenzy.

[greengirl]

Thank you. I never would have thought of grating it. What a great idea. Thanks. Do you guys also use those little floating cones to contain the beef heart "worms" when you feed the discus, or do you just let them sink down?

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Just let it sink.

[Alight]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?34961-Carol-s-beefheart-will-not-disolve-in-tank

Since you have 20 of them, take a look at the thread above. You use a salad shooter like device that has a grater of the right opening size with this. It makes it much easier to make batches of food.

[kennykien2007]

Lucky discus

[DISCUS STU]

I take a small portion and just cut it finely with a sharp knife and then put it into the tank.

For very small fry and newborns that are just starting to feed away from the parents, I'll put it into a blender with some water and shoot it at the group with a large plastic syringe.

[DLFL]

Please make sure you keep your filters clean with beef heart. I did not keep two sponge filters as clean as Ishould of with small discus and lost so many I am ashamed to even admit it.

[kenvu07]

Is the beefheart mix still good when I leave my beefheart mix in the cooling side instead of freezing side, they still eat, just worries they eat spoiled food

[Altum Nut]

Is the beefheart mix still good when I leave my beefheart mix in the cooling side instead of freezing side, they still eat, just worries they eat spoiled food

You should store your B/H in the freezer. You can thaw what you want to feed in the fridge for about 2-3 days in a air tight container which is better for digestion rather then direct from freezer.
Basically saying..."how long would you keep a raw steak in the fridge before it's cooked for consumption."

Hope that helps,
...Ralph

[kenvu07]

Thx altum