How to raise Round vs Pointed discus

[kimberly]

I noticed that my 6 discus are closer to pointed noses vs. round noses and bodies. After reading, I learned that this is not ideal for them.

I feed them 4 frozen blood worm blocks a day. Three are adults and three are 3-4 inches. I also feed them Omega flakes twice a day. And I give them one block of brine shrimp.

I do a 20% water change every day except one day a week I change 50%. I have a 60 gallon tank.

Do you think that feeding them more will increase their round body size? Why or why not?

Thank you

[brewmaster15]

Hi Kimberly,
Welcome to the forum! Unfortunately feeding and water changes are one aspect of raising round fish but genetics is also a factor as is age. Some discus do "shape up" over time with good care. But if they are genetically predisposed to be long and pointy...no amount of care will change that.

Can you post some pics of your fish and tell us how old they are?

Thank you,
Al

[Phillydubs]

Al beat me to it... you can try to increase feedings and get them different foods to "bulk them up" maybe with some
Size and thickness they may look better. With that your water change should increase. Can you do 50 a day?

But as al said genetics are just that and you can't fight them no matter how hard you try to adjust the environment

[John_Nicholson]

Partially genetic and partially because of marginal care. You need to feed better and your water changes are just barely adequate for growing out fish.

-john

[kimberly]

Hi Kimberly,
Welcome to the forum! Unfortunately feeding and water changes are one aspect of raising round fish but genetics is also a factor as is age. Some discus do "shape up" over time with good care. But if they are genetically predisposed to be long and pointy...no amount of care will change that.

Can you post some pics of your fish and tell us how old they are?

Thank you,
Al

Thank you. It is good to be here. I don't know how to post pictures yet, but I am working on it. Thanks for asking. I don't know the age of my fish. I noticed your pictures. What do you feed them?

[kimberly]

Al beat me to it... you can try to increase feedings and get them different foods to "bulk them up" maybe with some
Size and thickness they may look better. With that your water change should increase. Can you do 50 a day?

But as al said genetics are just that and you can't fight them no matter how hard you try to adjust the environment
Thank you for your reply. I can do 50% water changes a day and increase their feedings. I love your picture.

[kimberly]

Partially genetic and partially because of marginal care. You need to feed better and your water changes are just barely adequate for growing out fish.

-john

John, what do you think is better feeding? I noticed that you won an award in 2014. I was looking for a discus show in the USA and I saw your name. Is that really you?

[pitdogg2]

more protein. Flakes are just OK maybe incorporate a good pellet like Hikari bio-discus or Omega one sinking super color pellet in the small size mine really love it. you could also chop up red worms, other option freeze dried black worms or live if you have a source. John will most likely say a good beefheart mix. Aquatic suppliers also has some pellets and freeze dried black worms. The Aquatic suppliers "Discus Chow" is real small and for larger fish it may not work well as it didn't for mine which are full grown. I really wish Aquatic suppliers "Discus Chow" came in a 1-1.5 mm pellet to me this would be perfect for larger fish.

[Clawhammer]

My fish are getting ripped on this (in addition to Al's freeze dried black worms). Its easier and less messy than homemade beefheart, but more expensive. http://www.sfbb.com/Beefheart-_40.php

I thaw, rinse, and then marinate it in garlic guard and vita-chem for 15 minutes then the feeding frenzy is on...

[pitdogg2]

http://www.sfbb.com/Beefheart-_40.php

I thaw, rinse, and then marinate it in garlic guard and vita-chem for 15 minutes then the feeding frenzy is on...

My thought is the garlic and vita-chem would be better suited to the freeze dried worms.

[kimberly]

more protein. Flakes are just OK maybe incorporate a good pellet like Hikari bio-discus or Omega one sinking super color pellet in the small size mine really love it. you could also chop up red worms, other option freeze dried black worms or live if you have a source. John will most likely say a good beefheart mix. Aquatic suppliers also has some pellets and freeze dried black worms. The Aquatic suppliers "Discus Chow" is real small and for larger fish it may not work well as it didn't for mine which are full grown. I really wish Aquatic suppliers "Discus Chow" came in a 1-1.5 mm pellet to me this would be perfect for larger fish.

I noticed that you mentioned Discus Chow. I never heard of it till today. Thank you for those suggestions. I am going to order that Discus Chow and Freeze Dried Black Worms. Do you think those will be adequate protein?

[Ryan925]

I'd say the three most important factors are quality of stock, WCs & proper feeding.

I got mine in April. After a few months I noticed that the growth of a few of them was lacking significantly as well as shape.. I made a lot of changes to my tank as well as increase WCs. The few that were behind have not caught up to the rest as well as have very nice round shapes. They also have gotten to the point where growth lengthwise has slowed but they are really starting to bulk up.

As many others do I feed beef heart plus, freeze dried black worms with spinach, flakes and pellets

[kimberly]

My fish are getting ripped on this (in addition to Al's freeze dried black worms). Its easier and less messy than homemade beefheart, but more expensive. http://www.sfbb.com/Beefheart-_40.php

I thaw, rinse, and then marinate it in garlic guard and vita-chem for 15 minutes then the feeding frenzy is on...

Clawhammer, I am new to Simply Discus. I noticed that you have a lot of experience with feeding your discus at certain times and amounts. Do you still feed them more than 3 times a day or did you cut back? Do you think the marinated recipe is helping? Why or why not?

[kimberly]

I'd say the three most important factors are quality of stock, WCs & proper feeding.

I got mine in April. After a few months I noticed that the growth of a few of them was lacking significantly as well as shape.. I made a lot of changes to my tank as well as increase WCs. The few that were behind have not caught up to the rest as well as have very nice round shapes. They also have gotten to the point where growth lengthwise has slowed but they are really starting to bulk up.

As many others do I feed beef heart plus, freeze dried black worms with spinach, flakes and pellets

Ryan,
Thank you for replying. It is really good to be here with other like minded individuals. I noticed a few people suggested Black Worms, pellets, and Chow, so I ordered them today from Simply Discus. I did not see Beef Heart Plus on there. Do you think Blood Worms are not as good as those suggestions? Why or why not?

[Ryan925]

Ryan,
Thank you for replying. It is really good to be here with other like minded individuals. I noticed a few people suggested Black Worms, pellets, and Chow, so I ordered them today from Simply Discus. I did not see Beef Heart Plus on there. Do you think Blood Worms are not as good as those suggestions? Why or why not?

The blood worm topic is a hotly debated one. Somes opinion is they are not as nutritious of a food and others will differ.

I won't speculate either way but you can search for many threads on the subject here.

Beef heart you can purchase at your lfs. Many make their own but I just purchase mine. Personally I use the SF brand beefheart plus..

[Clawhammer]

Clawhammer, I am new to Simply Discus. I noticed that you have a lot of experience with feeding your discus at certain times and amounts. Do you still feed them more than 3 times a day or did you cut back? Do you think the marinated recipe is helping? Why or why not?

Hi Kimberly. I honestly probably have more posts than experience, but I have read the heck out of these forums and most say that there are no additional returns to feeding more than 3 times. I spread the feedings out as much as possible throughout the day, the first feeding very early in the morning, second at noon, and third late at night right before lights out. I think reducing the fast time overnight is key. Timing probably only provides marginal benefits though as long as you are feeding quality foods every day.

Regarding the garlic guard, the only thing I can say for sure is the discus enjoy the taste of the garlic and they eat anything I treat with garlic guard more readily than untreated (plus, why not give the discus a little additional enjoyment). There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that garlic provides health benefits in terms of immunity, but I would be lying if I said that was proven or a fact.

[Fish Tank Travis]

I don't have experience with discus yet but I have two fire eels that would only eat frozen bloodworms when I got them. They were about 3.5 and 4" when I got them. I started adding in chopped up red wigglers and the smaller of the eels was more willing to eat them and often ate all of the red wigglers while the slightly larger eel would "sniff" and skip over them. Well, the smaller eel wasn't the smaller eel for long and quickly passed up the other eel in size. Now, they are both between 10-12" and although they are close in length, the eel that regularly eats most, if not all, of the red wigglers (I don't even have to chop them up anymore) is nearly twice as thick. I have heard the same opinions about frozen bloodworms lacking in nutrition and after seeing how my eels have grown I am a believer that they don't offer much. I know the red wigglers are huge sources of protein and it shows that they provide a lot more nutrition than the bloodworms do.

Just wanted to share.

[John_Nicholson]

Yes that was me. I have been breeding/raising discus for 20+ years and am probably considered an old timer by most...LOL. I do feed beef heart in my fish house. I have way to many fish to feed anything else. The other statements were also correct. Increasing the amount of protein will help. If you are not putting high quality food in them then you cannot expect to get much out of them. Once you are feeding correctly then they will produce more waste which is one of the reasons that we change so much water.

-john

[two utes]

I noticed that my 6 discus are closer to pointed noses vs. round noses and bodies. After reading, I learned that this is not ideal for them.

I feed them 4 frozen blood worm blocks a day. Three are adults and three are 3-4 inches. I also feed them Omega flakes twice a day. And I give them one block of brine shrimp.

I do a 20% water change every day except one day a week I change 50%. I have a 60 gallon tank.

Do you think that feeding them more will increase their round body size? Why or why not?

Thank you

Hi Kimberly, and welcome to Simply Discus.
Did you purchase your 6 'pointed' discus as adults? Or did you raise them from juveniles?
The reason l ask this is because I believe that there are 3 main factors in raising good quality fish, with quality also including a good round shape, and thick body.

I think the most important factor is starting with good stock, when l purchased my juveniles l wanted to see the parents. Their form helped me decide whether l wanted their juveniles or not.

The next thing is to have them in good water, with the appropriate amounts of water changes.

Once you have good stock feed them good food. Mine receive 3 main lots of food each day, with each lot given over a period of 15 minutes or so, and consisting of beef heart, freeze dried black worms, and pellets. This ensures that they have full bellies when their done, but l don't feed them any more than they can eat over this period.

I hope you can post a few pictures of your fish so people on here can help you better. There really is a lot of very knowledgeable discus keepers/breeders on here. If it helps, look at the top toolbar when writing new posts and you will see the tools you need for posting pictures or videos, but you have to have photos of small files for them to be accepted. If you have any trouble contact one of the friendly moderators on here, and l am sure they will help you out.

It's good to be able to share photos of your discus on here :)



104396



Good luck with achieving what you want out of your discus. Hope this helped.

[adrian31@outlook.com]

Kimberly:

In the order of how much my 11 Discus love them:

#1: AL's FDBWs
#2: San Francisco Brand frozen beef hart
#3: frozen bloodworms
#4: Tony Tan Grand Champion Discus Pellets

For me it's also about what foods my Discus will eat really well not just pick at. I alternate all of these, #'s 3&4 in the morning when they're the hungriest, but they just get frenzied over #1 & #2.

[kimberly]

The blood worm topic is a hotly debated one. Somes opinion is they are not as nutritious of a food and others will differ.

I won't speculate either way but you can search for many threads on the subject here.

Beef heart you can purchase at your lfs. Many make their own but I just purchase mine. Personally I use the SF brand beefheart plus..

Ryan,
Thank you for your response. I noticed that my discus are avoiding the Discus Chow because I use to feed them blood worms. I noticed that no one talked about blood worms on here to help beef up my discus. I wonder why blood worms are not nutritious... Maybe they are, but I value the advice on here. What do you think about blood worms? Do you think my discus will eat the Chow after two days? It's been one day and they hardly eat the new food.

[Ryan925]

Ryan,
Thank you for your response. I noticed that my discus are avoiding the Discus Chow because I use to feed them blood worms. I noticed that no one talked about blood worms on here to help beef up my discus. I wonder why blood worms are not nutritious... Maybe they are, but I value the advice on here. What do you think about blood worms? Do you think my discus will eat the Chow after two days? It's been one day and they hardly eat the new food.

Discus can be very picky. You have to be persistent with new foods. Feed the new food their first feeding of the day in small.amounts. Vac out what they don't eat so it doesn't spoil the water. Stick with it. May take a week or more 'til they cave in. Once a couple of them catch on the rest will follow

[kimberly]

Hi Kimberly, and welcome to Simply Discus.
Did you purchase your 6 'pointed' discus as adults? Or did you raise them from juveniles?
The reason l ask this is because I believe that there are 3 main factors in raising good quality fish, with quality also including a good round shape, and thick body.

I think the most important factor is starting with good stock, when l purchased my juveniles l wanted to see the parents. Their form helped me decide whether l wanted their juveniles or not.

The next thing is to have them in good water, with the appropriate amounts of water changes.

Once you have good stock feed them good food. Mine receive 3 main lots of food each day, with each lot given over a period of 15 minutes or so, and consisting of beef heart, freeze dried black worms, and pellets. This ensures that they have full bellies when their done, but l don't feed them any more than they can eat over this period.

I hope you can post a few pictures of your fish so people on here can help you better. There really is a lot of very knowledgeable discus keepers/breeders on here. If it helps, look at the top toolbar when writing new posts and you will see the tools you need for posting pictures or videos, but you have to have photos of small files for them to be accepted. If you have any trouble contact one of the friendly moderators on here, and l am sure they will help you out.

It's good to be able to share photos of your discus on here :)



104396



Good luck with achieving what you want out of your discus. Hope this helped.

Thank you Two Utes,
I noticed your fish and I stopped to stare! It is lovely. I posted some pictures of my discus. I bought them within a year. I use to buy from RockyMountain Discus, but Al stepped down. He was great and sent me beautiful healthy discus. Now I shop locally.

I am feeding them pellets (three days). They are on food strike. I changed their diet from bloodworms to pellets and I am worried they won't eat. Do you soak your pellets before feeding them? Also how long do I allow this food strike until it becomes unhealthy for them?

[two utes]

I am feeding them pellets (three days). They are on food strike. I changed their diet from bloodworms to pellets and I am worried they won't eat. Do you soak your pellets before feeding them? Also how long do I allow this food strike until it becomes unhealthy for them?

Hi Kimbery. No l do not soak my pellets before feeding. I understand your concerns about the food strike, but they will eat once they get hungry. I highly recommend purchasing Freeze Dried Black Worms. I use an Australian made product which Al on here supplies. Definitely give it a go