So how do you feed beefheart?

[nacra99]

Hello all!

I've found a lot of wonderful posts on beefheart recipies, but i'm not quite sure how to actually feed them to the discus. Do you just drop a frozen chunk into the water and let the discus take care of themselves? Or should I defrost them first? I've also read articles on people shaving the slab of beef with a knife or a potato peeler.... so we feed them the shavings?

btw... does anyone know where to get Beefhearts in the New Orleans area? All the grocery stores here don't seem to carry them.

Hope to hear from you guys soon.

Cheers!
Marc

[etr63]

Hi Marc

I cut my beef heart in to pieces about the size I think would be enough for 1 fish. I add 1 piece for each fish + 1
( in a tank with 8 discus I add 9 pieces of beefheart ) that way if one gets his food taken by another then there is another piece waiting. I add it to the tank frozen. It thaws fast in the tank.

Earl

[alex_m]

Hi Marc,

whatever is comfortable for you. I feed small amounts frequently.

alex

[fish_maniac]

Hi Marc,
I slided the BH from the small frozen cube and just put it into the tank one slide at a time. I make sure they finish most of it before I putting another one in. They usually come up to my hand and get the BH so they eat most of it. The albino plecos eat the rest.

Carol has an interesting doc on her BH. I will give it a try when I mix my own BH.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16479

Hope this help.
Kam

[Howie_W]

Hello all!

Do you just drop a frozen chunk into the water and let the discus take care of themselves? Or should I defrost them first? I've also read articles on people shaving the slab of beef with a knife or a potato peeler.... so we feed them the shavings?

btw... does anyone know where to get Beefhearts in the New Orleans area? All the grocery stores here don't seem to carry them.

Hope to hear from you guys soon.

Cheers!
Marc


Hi Marc,

Most places that sell beef will be able to get beef heart for you...the next time you're at the market or local butcher store ask them to order you some.

After grinding up the beef heart I freeze it into very thin patties and freeze it, keeping the pieces sandwiched in between wax paper. When it's time to feed I cut off small pieces and thaw in warm water for a couple minutes before feeding.

Howie

[Anonapersona]

I shred my frozen beefheart mix with a cheese grater and keep it in a jar in the freezer. Then I can just spoon out what I want.

It is in tiny bits, so the fish suck them up. It takes awhile for the fish to clean it all up, but there is never any left for me to remove. They eat it all, though it may take a while to get all the bits collected. When I sliced it with a serrated knife there was always a few stringy bits they left that I had to clean out, so this is better.

I feed on the side away from the penguin filter, and sometimes I will slow the intake so no bits go up the filter since I don't have a sponge on that intake.

I was using the food processor with the grater blade to shred it, but I broke the blade and find that the unit is so old there are no replacements for it (oops!). So now I use a standard cheese grater or a cheap manual rotary cheese grater (walmart $3) to do a cup or two at a time.

I can't believe how fast I am going through the beefheart! I bought 9 lbs and mixed in 2 or 3 lbs of shrimp and after trimming still had about 9 or 10 lbs of mix. I'm almost through the big bag that had 7 lbs.

As for a source, I'd just call Schwegmanns' (they still have that don't they?) or any big ethnic store. I get BH for about $1.20/lb trimmed from Fiesta here which is like a Spanish Schwegmanns'. The butcher took a day or two to get it, it wasn't on hand, but was easy to get. Took me 4 hours to process it!

[Cowboy]

What I've been doing is smearing the mix into those white plastic light grills used in suspended ceilings for flourescent lights. They come 2'x4' but I cut them in half so they will fit better in the freezer. Just put wax paper under it, smear the mix into the grills and stick in freezer. The next day just pop them out (I will admit they don't always just 'pop' out but it usually isn't too bad) and put into tupperware container. You will have very uniform cubes ready for feeding. If you ever have someone feed for you just tell them how many cubes. Also, I have always thrown them in frozen. If this isn't clear enough let me know. I'll be making a new batch this week and could take some pictures. Being a dairy farmer I guess I take it for granted how easy it is for me to get beefheart. In fact I can even put a face to the heart :P

[Webzilla]

Cowboy! Now that is to funny! You can put a face to the beefheart? Hehehehhe - oh well thats a good ol' beef farmer!

I really like your technique on using the floresent grills for beefheart. Hrmm, I think that is one tip that should be put in the DYI actually because it is a great tip!

I'm out!

John.....

[nacra99]

Flurocent Grilles??
You mean like "egg crates"???
Frozen BH cubes...That's an awesome idea!!
I'll go try and see how it works out.

Thanks for the advice everyone!
You all have been very helpful! :)


Cheers
Marc