Discus Growing

[fishguy456]

So far have my newly bare bottom 75g tank with four discus (plan to add more) and am doing daily/ every other day 50%water changes. Am away for about 10 hours a day and was wondering what is recommended to feed them more often throughout the day. However, on the topic of food, the discus do not seem to be incredibly avid about eating the fdbw or frozen beef heart, does anyone have tips to getting discus to eat more(probably a stupid question)?.I am feeding 3-4 times a day and would like to be able to feed 5 but struggle to find a schedule, any tips? thanks, and I hope I'm not the only one that benefits from this. One thing I am looking into trying out is beef heart flakes from Kensfish.com, would this be a good food or is there better food?
thanks again.

[rickztahone]

There of course are auto feeders, and although I have yet to use one in all my years in the hobby, I know many that use them successfully. You can feed your discus 4 times a day and do very well with them. Keep feeding the BH and FDBW and they will learn to eat it with gusto.

[Filip]

I use auto feeder with tetra discus granules only for the first feeding and to fill the gap of 10 hours that I also have during working hours.
It cant compare with slow and careful hand feeding with filters off,but it does fill the gap.

About appetite.They are still new in your tank.Give them some time to adjust to new parameters and enviroment.
Mine took more than a month to adjust and go to full appetite. In the beginning they were scared whenever I approached the tank to feed them. They freaked out in the middle of feeding and didn't eat half as much as they do now.

[mkng07]

I agree with the comments about using the fish feeders for optimum growth. I actually just purchased these for my tanks this weekend. Going to test them out and see how they work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005U87CZI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
When I was shopping for the auto-feeders, I was looking for
1. How many times it could feed a day
2. ease of programming the time to auto-feed
3. A reliable food dispenser that doesn't easily get clogged and feeds a consistent amount every time

[fishguy456]

I use auto feeder with tetra discus granules only for the first feeding and to fill the gap of 10 hours that I also have during working hours.
It cant compare with slow and careful hand feeding with filters off,but it does fill the gap.

About appetite.They are still new in your tank.Give them some time to adjust to new parameters and enviroment.
Mine took more than a month to adjust and go to full appetite. In the beginning they were scared whenever I approached the tank to feed them. They freaked out in the middle of feeding and didn't eat half as much as they do now.
I figured the being new would have some lasting impact, didn't think it would last so long though, thanks!

[fishguy456]

I agree with the comments about using the fish feeders for optimum growth. I actually just purchased these for my tanks this weekend. Going to test them out and see how they work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005U87CZI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
When I was shopping for the auto-feeders, I was looking for
1. How many times it could feed a day
2. ease of programming the time to auto-feed
3. A reliable food dispenser that doesn't easily get clogged and feeds a consistent amount every time
Ive heard good things about the Eheim auto fish feeder, what about you?

[fishguy456]

There of course are auto feeders, and although I have yet to use one in all my years in the hobby, I know many that use them successfully. You can feed your discus 4 times a day and do very well with them. Keep feeding the BH and FDBW and they will learn to eat it with gusto.

okay thanks! didn't know fish could acquire taste haha, still new to the discus, all my past fish devoured anything.

[Jack L]

I agree with the comments about using the fish feeders for optimum growth. I actually just purchased these for my tanks this weekend. Going to test them out and see how they work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005U87CZI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
When I was shopping for the auto-feeders, I was looking for
1. How many times it could feed a day
2. ease of programming the time to auto-feed
3. A reliable food dispenser that doesn't easily get clogged and feeds a consistent amount every time

i've only had issue with the various drum types, dispenses RANDOM amounts
the kind i use now, and the only type that i every found to give me real control are these basic ones, but they don't make it anymore.

it was this type
http://products.marinedepot.com/rainbow_lifegard_automatic_fish_feeder_11415183.ph p

there is a battery power one like this i see, but i haven't used it.

[mkng07]

Ive heard good things about the Eheim auto fish feeder, what about you?

I've heard good thing about the eheims too. If I had one tank to buy the autofeeder for I would probably go with the eheim but for me I have about 5 tanks. So since the one I posted is almost half the price of the eheim, its more economical for me to go with that one.

One issue that I've heard about the rotating drum type fish feeders is that a lot of times, the hole that drops the food out of the drum is either too small or too big depending on which type of food you load. One tip is to use tape to cover the hole until the food being dispensed is the correct amount.

[mkng07]

i've only had issue with the various drum types, dispenses RANDOM amounts
the kind i use now, and the only type that i every found to give me real control are these basic ones, but they don't make it anymore.

it was this type
http://products.marinedepot.com/rainbow_lifegard_automatic_fish_feeder_11415183.ph p

there is a battery power one like this i see, but i haven't used it.

I believe this one does the same as the one you posted.
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Mate-F14-Aquarium-Feeder/dp/B000YK5W18/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448341509&sr=8-3&keywords=auto+fish+feeder

[FishFanMan]

I use 4 of the fishmate feeders but found I have to use the airline to prevent flakes from picking up moisture and sticking together which prevents it from dropping sometimes.

[mkng07]

I use 4 of the fishmate feeders but found I have to use the airline to prevent flakes from picking up moisture and sticking together which prevents it from dropping sometimes.

I had this problem when I placed the autofeeder too close to my sponge filters where the bubbles caused a lot of evaporation, not sure if thats the same case for you. What I ended up doing was placing my feeder on the opposite side of where the sponge filters were and that seems to have worked out well so far

[rickztahone]

Again, I've never used these, but do you typically have to load the food daily? If not, can you? I think I'd much rather only pre-load a set amount of food to distribute for the day, that way, in case it just happens to feed all of it, I know that it will probably not kill my discus as opposed to dumping the whole contents of a flake jar or what have you. A problem I see is that these seem to be rim mountable. I have a fully euro brace acrylic tank and do not see where I would possibly mount it. My back section is being used by a full coast to coast overflow.

[fishguy456]

Again, I've never used these, but do you typically have to load the food daily? If not, can you? I think I'd much rather only pre-load a set amount of food to distribute for the day, that way, in case it just happens to feed all of it, I know that it will probably not kill my discus as opposed to dumping the whole contents of a flake jar or what have you. A problem I see is that these seem to be rim mountable. I have a fully euro brace acrylic tank and do not see where I would possibly mount it. My back section is being used by a full coast to coast overflow.
I would assume so, but some definitely have the possibility of killing your fish if there is a malfunction and you are gone for a few days then there could be problems for sure...ive found another one that has small trays like what Jack had said.

[Filip]

I got eheim feeder 3518.
It was recommended to me by my fellow reefers as a very reliable and accurate.
They advised that if you have expensive and worthy stock you don't won't to go cheap on feeder since they reported some pretty bad experiences with cheap PRC feeders- overfeedings,tank dump and dead stock etc.

1.Eheim is battery driven.
It can stick, stand or screw horizontally and verticaly,so it's almost imposible to have problems mounting it to any kind of tank.

2.It has 4 times a day feeding opt.
3.It has big reservoir to run for months.
4.Feedings are allways equal dosage and dosage it's easily adjustable.
5. It has two sips per every feeding option,so that if fish rest and missed the first sip they will certainly come to feed on second sip one minute after.
4. It has ventilator for aeration of food In reservoir so it can't moist and clog.

And as a final reference, fellow plant geek with tetras and some other community small fish went abroad to States for 6 months andvleft the tank with eheim feeder.
When he returned all fish were alive.
BTW. I'm not on the Eheim pay list :),just sharing info and experiences :)

[mkng07]

Again, I've never used these, but do you typically have to load the food daily? If not, can you? I think I'd much rather only pre-load a set amount of food to distribute for the day, that way, in case it just happens to feed all of it, I know that it will probably not kill my discus as opposed to dumping the whole contents of a flake jar or what have you. A problem I see is that these seem to be rim mountable. I have a fully euro brace acrylic tank and do not see where I would possibly mount it. My back section is being used by a full coast to coast overflow.

If your talking about the fishmate, I would assume you have to load it every few days depending on how many times you are scheduling the feed schedule.

The rotating drums on the other hand I believe you could go about a few weeks between re-loading.

Update:

I actually started using the fish feeder yesterday and so far no complaints about it. It does what its supposed to. I'm using it with tetra-color granular bits. Theres a manual button to feed whenever you want and it allows a max feed schedule of 4 times a day with an option to feed two times per feeding.

One other thing is that it is very quiet when on. I've had some other cheap rotating drum feeders and they were very loud when switched on.

[rickztahone]

I got eheim feeder 3518.
It was recommended to me by my fellow reefers as a very reliable and accurate.
They advised that if you have expensive and worthy stock you don't won't to go cheap on feeder since they reported some pretty bad experiences with cheap PRC feeders- overfeedings,tank dump and dead stock etc.

1.Eheim is battery driven.
It can stick, stand or screw horizontally and verticaly,so it's almost imposible to have problems mounting it to any kind of tank.

2.It has 4 times a day feeding opt.
3.It has big reservoir to run for months.
4.Feedings are allways equal dosage and dosage it's easily adjustable.
5. It has two sips per every feeding option,so that if fish rest and missed the first sip they will certainly come to feed on second sip one minute after.
4. It has ventilator for aeration of food In reservoir so it can't moist and clog.

And as a final reference, fellow plant geek with tetras and some other community small fish went abroad to States for 6 months andvleft the tank with eheim feeder.
When he returned all fish were alive.
BTW. I'm not on the Eheim pay list :),just sharing info and experiences :)

Is this it?

[fishguy456]

Is this it?
nope,
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Mate-F14-Aquarium-Feeder/dp/B000YK5W18/ref=sr_1_4?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1448513473&sr=1-4&keywords=automatic+fish+feeder

This is the one i mentioned seems like it might be worth the investment.

[Filip]

Is this it?

Rick, I can't put a link of the product from my crappy phone, but just google Eheim 3581 and you'll get plenty of info on it.
Prices go about 30-40 usd.

[Jack L]

I believe this one does the same as the one you posted.
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Mate-F14-Aquarium-Feeder/dp/B000YK5W18/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448341509&sr=8-3&keywords=auto+fish+feeder

yup. might be more configurable on timing too, mine is old tech.
one thing about these simple types is that if you wanted to, you can feed different things at different times, i couldn't do that with drums.

others like the eheim, if my rotary one dies, that is probably what i'll buy. only read good on it, and above comments support it too. i think it would go a longer time w/o refilling too.

[strawberryblonde]

I manage my feedings by offering them flakes first thing in the morning. If yours don't care for the frozen beefheart, buy some beefheart flakes and make a mix with other discus flakes. I call mine "the breakfast of champions". It's a mix of beefheart flakes, spirulina flakes, immune booster flakes and 2 brands of Discus flakes.

Then just before you leave for work, put 5 or 6 Freeze dried blackworm cubes into a cone feeder. Be sure to buy a one piece cone feeder, then turn it upside down. Put the cubes in, wait a minute or two for them to soften a bit and then gently tap on it to loosen a few worms. The drifting worms will attract your discus and they'll come to investigate "that fuzzy stuff over there".

They should stay nice and full on just the cubes all day while you work.

When you get home, feed them more flakes, or some pellets if they like them. Then do your water change 30 minutes later. Then more cubes in the feeder for them to feast on before bed time.

[rickztahone]

Is this it?

Just realized I didn't even include a link! lol. It was the 3581 that I had linked to though.

[Jack L]

the company that makes mine now makes this

http://www.amazon.com/Lifegard-Aquatics-Intelli-Feed-Aquarium-Adapter/dp/B00PM8RYR2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448587072&sr=8-3&keywords=IntelliFeed+Fish+Feeder

seems a bit over engineered, cool though

[fishguy456]

I manage my feedings by offering them flakes first thing in the morning. If yours don't care for the frozen beefheart, buy some beefheart flakes and make a mix with other discus flakes. I call mine "the breakfast of champions". It's a mix of beefheart flakes, spirulina flakes, immune booster flakes and 2 brands of Discus flakes.

Then just before you leave for work, put 5 or 6 Freeze dried blackworm cubes into a cone feeder. Be sure to buy a one piece cone feeder, then turn it upside down. Put the cubes in, wait a minute or two for them to soften a bit and then gently tap on it to loosen a few worms. The drifting worms will attract your discus and they'll come to investigate "that fuzzy stuff over there".

They should stay nice and full on just the cubes all day while you work.

When you get home, feed them more flakes, or some pellets if they like them. Then do your water change 30 minutes later. Then more cubes in the feeder for them to feast on before bed time.

Actually is close to what I'm doing right now, in the AM I give them fbh and then i fill a worm cone to the rim with fdbw from aquatic suppliers. When i get home another cube and then some more bw. And then a 50% wc later that night