What to feed Heckels

[Tonyintx]

I have a heckel that only eats very small amounts of food and only brine shrimp and he is begining to look a little skinny? what should I do? pls help ???

[paulmat]

Mine love frozen bloodworms,they'll eat blackworms but don't like them as much.
Haven't had much luck with anything else.
Paul :guitarist:

[Smokey]

Howdy Tonyintx;
How old is the heckel, how long have you had it. ???

[Tonyintx]

Thanks for the info, mine only eats the BS and very little at that, I was just wondering if there was something that he was supposed to be eating instead of BS. thanks again

[darcy]

I remember someone else had this problem a while back. Any ways if you can try and put another tank right beside the tank with the heckel. Feed the other fish close to the other tank so the heckel can watch. then feed the heckel and see if it will eat other foods this way. it's worked for me but I won't guarentee it will work for you. try it you never know.
Darcy

my heckel eats everything BW, flake,beefheart and live.

[Tonyintx]

Thanks for the info Darcy. as far as how old my heckel is? exactly I don't know when I got him he was already around 5 in and that was about a yr ago.

[Smokey]

Tonyintx;
Sounds like the discus is slowly starving to death. Have you noticed what it's feces is like ??? Normal, healthy, or ?????

[darcy]

Do you have that heckel in with other discus? Just curious.
darcy

hello,
Small Schools of Guppies added to the tank will help get wild Discus eating.

Cary Gld!

[Tonyintx]

The feces are normal just few and no othr discus in there yet I just started up again with Discus(couldn't stay away long).

[darcy]

Maybe the heckel is pissed cause it's in there all alone!!!! 50 lashes for you my friend :whip: Now go out and get him some buddies and a 55 gallon tank!!!
Darcy

[Tonyintx]

Im on my way to visit Tim near Austin tomorrow to get some more Discus for his Highness, wish me luck :D

[darcy]

I wish you all the luck in the world!!!! When you get back post and tell us what you bought!!!
Darcy

[daninthesand]

yes, loneliness is not good for discus. They just don't seem to do well that way.

When I first got my heckels (2) they were very fussy indeed. It took about three weeks for them to start eating anything. They finally got interested in eating when I moved them (stll in quarantine, mind you) to a tank beside another one where they could see other discus. I got that advice from this forum :). So it was either the move itself or the view of the other fish that triggered their eating response.

Anyway, they began to slowly take live red wigglers I cut up for them, then they started on frozen Hikari blood worms. Now they eat everything including beefheart. So it was slow going but they continue to do rather well I think despite being very poorly cared for before I got them. talk about skinny! I had never seen discus so skinny.


HTH

Daniel

[darcy]

Daniel was that you I suggested to move them close to another tank? I remember telling someone that but can't remember who. Was it you? huh c'mon was it?
Darcy

[Francisco_Borrero]

I also think that keeping a discus alone is bad business. But if he is very ill and I don't have a cull/trashy/sick fish, I wouldn't risk a healthy fish by putting it with the heckel. The suggestion of putting the tank next to one with eager eaters (even if not discus) may be a good one.
In my limited experience, heckels will eat anything other wilds would eat, which is the same as any other non-wild discus. They may be used to some foods, but will take other foods...if otherwise healthy.
I would raise the temp, and try live food (Black worms, small eathworms, brine shrimp) and be patient. Once he start eating, the battle is won and you can teach it about other foods.
If he does not eat at all, then I would do a metro run.

IMO he is not eating not because he is a heckel, but because there may be something wrong with him.

Good luck & cheers, Francisco.

[daninthesand]

Tony.

Just for some encouragement, I posted this pic to show you that eventually, with some TLC, and a lot of patience, you should see your heckels eating. This fish was one of a pair I talked about a while back on this post:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=408;star t=0

He's come around. Was so skinny you could see the shape of his skull and had no meat on it at all. Now he looks as happy as can be, begging for food at the front of the glass. Like I said eats everything! :)
Not the greatest pic, but its the only one I got of him(her) you can see the tail of the other heckel there too. So they both are doing well!
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//attachments/LFS_heckels.jpg

[Francisco_Borrero]

Looking very, very good daninthesand ! Beautiful fish, and excellent job in bringing it (them) back. Do yu know the location of origin of those fish ? They look like some of mine, which I have been told by knowledgeable people that look like Unini fish.
Cheers, Francisco.

[daninthesand]

Thanks for the compliment Francisco. :)

Unfortunately the LFS I go them from had no idea where they came from originally. They could not even guarantee they were wild caught. Probably were though.

Daniel

[Francisco_Borrero]

They are wild Daniel. Nobody is breeding those. Hopefullu you will ?
Cheers, Francisco.

[beta]

Wow! great striped Heckels.. :o