Feeding Frequency

[Darren]

Hey all! This forum is great! I've spent much of my spare time the past few weeks reading the majority of all the threads...A lot of great info!!! Keep up the great work!

I saw a recent post by Joe stating you have to feed your juvie's 4-5 times per day to attain maximum growth. I am sure this is correct and I am not discounting Joe at all. However, I have this dreadful thing you call, a job :(, where I spend 1/2 of my day at and find it very difficult to feed this much, at least during the week. My feeding schedule is as follows:

Leave for work at 6:00am (in the dreaded pitch dark!) and return home around 6:00pm (in the dreaded pitch dark!). Feed once right when I get home and then the 2nd around 10:00pm, 1 hr. before the lights go out. If I am around on the weekend by all means I try to get 4-5 in. When I leave for work in the morn., all the fishy's are in a deep slumber so I don't think it would be a good time to feed due to uneaten food lying around all day. Should I feed them every hour on the hour from 6:00pm-10:00pm? That would get the 5 in but I don't think that would be too good of an idea, too much too often I would assume.....

Is there anyone else out there like me who works? How do you get 5 feedings in per day? I wish I could stay home all day and play but unfortunately that is not an option. Oh yeah, I could get my wife to feed them but that is like her asking me to put her makeup on. ??? No a good option. She is not Discus literate and does not want to learn. Also, I can't come home for lunch to feed because I work 45 minutes from my house.

I've got three new juv's and I want to give them every opportunity to achieve maximum growth. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Darren

[Carol_Roberts]

Leave a small light on all night by your juveniles. First thing, before your coffee, wake up the juveniles - then feed them right before you walk out the door(1). Use an automatic feeder to feed them at 10:00 and 2:00pm (2, 3). Feed them as soon as you get home at 6:00 (4), Feed them an hour before bed say 9:00PM (5)

I feed 4 times a day during the week - I live close, so come home at lunch and feed

[gary1218]

I'm not sure if the info is in his web site but this person, Ray McCaleb, spoke at the ACA convention last summer. He feeds EXCLUSIVELY live blackworms AND he gets ALL his feedings in at night after he gets home from work.

http://www.geocities.com/ray_mccaleb/index.html

I forget the exact length of time he said it took discus to digest there food but it was somewhere around an hour, give or take. He feeds his discus 3 times in the evening spaced an hour or so apart.

This guy is VERY ANAL but has an AWESOME discus set up. EVERYTHING is picture perfect. He does do a few things differently than the rest of us BUT he has some beautiful discus.

GARY

[Darren]

Carol,

What type of feeder do you recommend? Also, what do you put in your feeder for the day feedings? Tetra bits?

Thanks,

Darren

[Carol_Roberts]

LOL, I'm the feeder - I run home at lunch to feed them.

Let's wait - I'm sure others that use feeders will reply and point you in the right direction . . .

[TimS]

My work schedule is similar to yours and this is how I feed them. I have one light on my 55 gal on a timer it turns the light on 30 minutes before I fall out of bed in the morning.
That way there are awake before work. I feed them and turn the other light on then. My wife feeds them once during the day. I feed them a third time as soon as I get home, then a couple more times in the evening.
I like to think by the timer turning just one light on, that sort of simulates the sun rising, and that timer shuts the one light off first at night. sun setting !@#$%^ ::) ;D 8)

Tim

[spartyblaze]

Darren, just a suggestion, but you might try these feeding cones http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=7359 I fill mine before work in the morning at 9:00 with a frozen mix, and they munch all day, without having to dump a large amount into the bottom of the tank to get sucked up by the filter. Sometimes there will even be a little left at 6:00 p.m. when I get home for their evening feeding session.

[ReeferKimberly]

maybe i'm weird, i feed a HUGE amount of cbw in the evening and then turn off the light like a half hour later. in the morning when they wake up, there are still worms to peck at, i don't feed more until i get home as the worms are usually gone by then. when they are, i feed flakes, frozen or whatever i feel like. then later i feed a lot of worms again and repeat. this way there is alway food available but it wont rot b/c it is alive. this is just my way..:)
kim :-*