Foods for my 7 week old discus.

[Poppa Ryno]

Hello everyone.

Ive bred my sapphire ruby discus successfully. They are abt 7wks old. Currently all are abt 1-1.25" and are starting to get color. Yesterday I pulled 2wk fry from mom & dad... Batch #2. They get a varied diet of BBS, daphnia, beefheart mix, pro gro smll fry mix and fine crushed Cobalt flake throughout the day. A minimum of 4-5 feedings.

Is there anything else i can be feeding for optimal growth? I know AL's fdbw are great, but it seems darned hard to get them consistently. Any feedback is appreciated, Thanks.

[Poppa Ryno]

Also they get a 70% WC daily w/ spot cleanings after feedings. BB tank.

[DonMD]

I feed beef heart flake from Inland Empire Discus, great stuff. You can mince it up for the really small fish, or dice it for little bigger fry, whatever. I also feed fdbw, slicing the cubes thin.

[Poppa Ryno]

Thank you, Don. I really like the idea of slicing the fdbw cubes. Ill have to try that once Al gets more rolling in.

[John_Nicholson]

At 7 weeks mine are normally on a diet of beef heart mix.

-john

[Poppa Ryno]

At 7 weeks mine are normally on a diet of beef heart mix.

-john
Thanks, John
How many times a day? Im giving them BH twice a day. Morning and evening.

[warblad79]

In my experienced I normally feed them 6-8x a day with high protein beefheart mix flakes, blackworm flakes, Premium Mysis shrimp with SELCO, and egg yolk flakes. I do 100%-150% water change per day. in 7 weeks my fry can reach between 2"-2.5" easily and mortality rate is also low.

[Poppa Ryno]

In my experienced I normally feed them 6-8x a day with high protein beefheart mix flakes, blackworm flakes, Premium Mysis shrimp with SELCO, and egg yolk flakes. I do 100%-150% water change per day. in 7 weeks my fry can reach between 2"-2.5" easily and mortality rate is also low.

Thank you, warblad.
My turqs are usually 2-2.5" by 8 weeks and my cross pair is usually there in size as well using the same foods and WC schedule as I am now. But this is my first go with the rubies & they seem a bit smaller than I'm used to comparitively.

I'll up the WC to 2 @ 70% daily and throw in an extra feeding or two. Thank you very much guys. These were my first high grade purchase and I'd like to make them as healthy as possible.

[Poppa Ryno]

The parents were purchased. Lol, not the babies.

[Poppa Ryno]

Just thought i would mention that after a long talk with Kenny Cheung, he informed me that this strain is one that grows a little slower than my turqs or cobalts. So i feel a bit better. But for an update... They are all 2-2.5" now and starting to show some color on the fringes of body. Thanks all for the help in this. I am continuing my 2 Daily WC's at 70% per WC.

[Larry Bugg]

Is there anything else i can be feeding for optimal growth? I know AL's fdbw are great, but it seems darned hard to get them consistently. Any feedback is appreciated, Thanks.

Sounds like you are buying too small a quantity at a time. These have a great shelf life and keeping the surplus in the refrigerator extends that life. Take advantage of the savings Al gives by buying a larger quantity at one time and you shouldn't have an issue running out of them.

[Poppa Ryno]

If i could i would, my friend. But unfortunately im a single custody father and dont always have the $$. I get to buy discus once a year or 18months, lol (if I'm lucky). I breed to support my hobby. But i did just buy the 100g original fdbw cubes.

Larry- any thoughts on the bio pigment fdbw? I bought the original as i know very little of color enhancing bio pigment. Seems very unnatural, but maybe im wrong. I just dont want to force color unnaturally.

[Larry Bugg]

If i could i would, my friend. But unfortunately im a single custody father and dont always have the $$. I get to buy discus once a year or 18months, lol (if I'm lucky). I breed to support my hobby. But i did just buy the 100g original fdbw cubes.

Larry- any thoughts on the bio pigment fdbw? I bought the original as i know very little of color enhancing bio pigment. Seems very unnatural, but maybe im wrong. I just dont want to force color unnaturally.

I use both the regular and the bio pigment. The last I bought from Al a few weeks ago was the bio pigment. I don't like the use of the term force but in this case I guess it works. Actually, using this term, you are forcing the color "naturally" not unnaturally using the bio pigment and this is the big difference. There are those in the aquatic world that force the colors of fish using unnatural means and that is indeed a problem. It can be very detrimental to the fish. To my knowledge, using the natural enhancers are not detrimental to the fish. The only drawback, if you want to call it that, to using natural enhancers is that if you want to maintain the color you have to continue using it. If you stop using it the colors will slowly revert back to what they were before using them.

[Poppa Ryno]

I use both the regular and the bio pigment. The last I bought from Al a few weeks ago was the bio pigment. I don't like the use of the term force but in this case I guess it works. Actually, using this term, you are forcing the color "naturally" not unnaturally using the bio pigment and this is the big difference. There are those in the aquatic world that force the colors of fish using unnatural means and that is indeed a problem. It can be very detrimental to the fish. To my knowledge, using the natural enhancers are not detrimental to the fish. The only drawback, if you want to call it that, to using natural enhancers is that if you want to maintain the color you have to continue using it. If you stop using it the colors will slowly revert back to what they were before using them.
Thank you, Larry.
What makes it natural? I assume its heavy in carotine? Which i know is a natural source for red color enhancement. I probably wont ever use the bio pigment ones, as i would worry abt running out and would hate to watch the enhanced color wash out.