newb question

[Qbal18]

i am new to this. i have 2 discus abotu 2.5" right now i anly have store bought fish food. BW, tetra colorbits trpical granules,tetracichlid mini granueles and flake food that i have mixed up from a few diferent types. now i keep seeing stuff about beef heart and bbs now i see the resipies but still really dont understand. how long would it last for 2 discs, acually 4 i am getting 2 more in a day. is it more or less $ then stuff from the lfs and is so is there any particular tyrp of home made food that is better. and last with the beef heart to you cook it first(how) and what type.
i just want to give my fish the best food i can what i have

[Carol_Roberts]

Since you only have two (soon to be four) discus the diet you're feeding now is fine. I personally think beefheart is really messy. The fish stores sell frozen mixes if you want to try it.

[darcy]

Yeah the beefheart is kinda messy!! But my fish love it, so I keep feeding it!!! My fish really don't leave much beefheart in the tank for me to siphon,which is fine by me. the fish store mixes up here in Canada are expensive and I get more bang for the buck by making it myself. I also agree with Carol your discus diet should be fine.
darcy

PS no you don't cook the heart!!!!

When making b/h make sure you let the meat drain for an hour or so. That way most of the blood is drained away. It is best to feed b/h prior to doing water changes.

HTH
Dodge

[Francisco_Borrero]

There are other frozen foods you may want to try, all in the spirit of providing your fish a varied diet. Frozen mysids are an excellent food to add in a rotation of various items.
You mentioned bbs (baby brine shrimp). That is a food only for very early fry, and not for your young discus. But you may consider BS (brine shrimp) as one more item to add variety. They are not tremendously nutritional although some brands are enriched with goodies, but do privide beta carothene (which is good for color) and have a bit of nutrition themselves.

Make sure you QUARENTENE those new discus coming in !!!! don't cut corners on that no matter where they come from.

Good luck, Francisco.

[Qbal18]

how long do i Q. them for 1week or what. because i know i need to get more discuse in with tthose ones i got soon they look a little timide by them selfs with the other small tetras but are looking alot better every day. they are eating good anw and almost have full color back at least after the lights have been on for 30 min in the morning (they are alittle scared when they first come on)

[Qbal18]

also what woudl be the reason to quorinten them also sorry for the newb question.

[Carol_Roberts]

Remember your history where the white settlers gave natives measels? Mostly the settlers didn't die from the measels because measels had been in Europe a long time and they had built up an immunity, but the natives were decimated.

Discus coming from different sources - different fish stores, different wholesalers or breeders have been exposed and developed resistance to a variety of illnesses. When you start throwing discus together you run the risk of exposing one group to an illness that may kill them while the other group swims happily about the tank.

To minimize this risk we quarantine. That means a seperate tank for new comers for 4 to 6 weeks. This gives the new fish time to adjust to our food and water with out the stress of competing with the resident discus. It also gives dormant diseases a chance to show themselves when the new discus are stressed from traveling. We can treat any illnesses in a quarantine tank without infecting our resident discus.

Really it's best to get 6 discus from one source. You minimise the number of different pathogens brought into your aquarium and you have enough discus to spread the aggression around.

[Qbal18]

ok so hwo dose that work with adding other fish you buy to that tank such as ottos and stuff do you have to dothat to them as well?

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes