Getting wild adult discus to eat anything other than frozen blood worms

[qieter]

Hi all,

I got 6 wild discus from Al last week. As of now, 5 of them are eating frozen bloodworms and some of them are pecking at tilapia fillets and market prawns meant for my aro and rays. One of them doesnt seem to be eating anything yet, (I think) but all of them still refuses any other kinds of food, NLS pellets, tetra bits, frozen mysis shrimps. I have not yet tried beefheart since I dont have them. Would it be possible to get wild discus to eat processed foods like tetra bits? how long does it usually take before they eat the bits?
thanks

Vic

[ValorG]

Hi all,

I got 6 wild discus from Al last week. As of now, 5 of them are eating frozen bloodworms and some of them are pecking at tilapia fillets and market prawns meant for my aro and rays. One of them doesnt seem to be eating anything yet, (I think) but all of them still refuses any other kinds of food, NLS pellets, tetra bits, frozen mysis shrimps. I have not yet tried beefheart since I dont have them. Would it be possible to get wild discus to eat processed foods like tetra bits? how long does it usually take before they eat the bits?
thanks

Vic
I got 3 san merahs like a week ago and they already eat homemade bh and flakes. I tried color bits and none of them really liked it. iono y but all the discus ive ever had never liked it. You are probably better off trying to make them eat flakes other than color bits but that is just my experience.

[qieter]

what kind of flakes would you recommend? Thanks...I hate going out to buy diff kinds of food and come back home and find out that none of my discus wants to eat it...luckily my geos are eating up almost everything lol..

Vic

[DarkDiscus]

That's SO strange since Al feeds anything and everything to his fish.

All of the fish I have received from Al eat like maniacs. Beefheart would be good. I know he feeds pellets. I wonder why yours are obsessed with the bloodworms...

John

[qieter]

yeap, Al told me they were eating bloodworms, tetrabits, BH, mysis shrimps....I tried all those except for BH and the only thing they ate was BW....maybe i give in to them too fast? I want to get them to eat anything ASAP since ill be leaving for 5 days next week and I want them to get settled down and eating be4 i left....i guess i will try tetrabits and mysis shrimp again when I get back next week when they shld be vv hungry lol.

These are adult discus, 5-6.5" in disc size, could it be that it takes much longer to get adult discus to settle down in a new tank and eat other foods?

Vic

[DarkDiscus]

Vic,

Starve them overnight and give them tetrabits only in the AM. Leave the bits in and feed nothing else. If they have not eaten by nightfall, siphon out the remaining bits and do a WC. Raise the temp in the tank 2 degrees. Feed them nothing else.


The next morning feed them bits again. Repeat the above, including the temp raise.

The next morning feed them bits again. If they don't eat them this time, there's something very strange going on. This has worked for me before.

Please let us know what happens. And don't give in. The fish won't starve in a couple of days and it's better for them and you for them to eat everything.

John

[qieter]

the water temp in my tank is already around 85-86 now, if i were to raise if by 2 degrees each time, it would be around 90plus degrees, is this alright for the fishes? i have a few geos, a pair of motoros and an aro in there.

Vic

[Wahter]

I would put the bloodworms in a feeder cone and then sneak in some flakes into the cone. At first, the discus spat out the flakes, but eventually within a month, they ate them. Now all of my wilds enjoy flakes (not all of them like the Tetra bits though).

[qieter]

Again, what kind of flakes would you recommend?Thanks

Vic

[Wahter]

Again, what kind of flakes would you recommend?Thanks

Vic

You could always go into the Foods and Nutrition (http://forum.simplydiscus.com//forumdisplay.php?f=33) section and do a search on "flake".

I like to feed Formula 2 by Ocean Nutrition (http://oceannutrition.com/index.html) and Omega One flakes from Omega Sea (http://www.omegasea.net/home.html).

HTH

[qieter]

okay thanks ill try the omega one flakes

Vic

[ppv1951]

agree with DD. don't feed them for a half day or so. then feed what you want them to eat in the a.m. the fish can be conditioned to eat just about anything. here's some great flake food:

www.mreed.com

pat.