beef heart substitute

[schmuttis]

I've been having a terrible time trying to find beef heart in my area. At our last aquarium society meeting on guppies, the speaker said that he was using london broil instead of beef heart since he was no longer able to find heart. So my question is - has anyone tried substituting london broil for beef heart in their recipes? I am able to purchase beef heart from my lfs but that doesn't contain garlic, vitamins, shrimp, spinach and other things that I would like to add to my mix. If not london broil, are there any other acceptable substitutions for heart?

BTW, I live in Lower Bucks County, PA - 18966. If anyone is from this area and knows of a source for fresh beef heart, please let me know. I have been able to find frozen beef heart but I can't imagine thawing it, grinding it up and then refreezing it is good at all for the discus. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[brewmaster15]

Hi ,

Do you have Stop and shop there? They'll order it for you if you ask...at least they do up here.

beefheart is not necessary for discus, you can try other home made feeds... Seafood mixes are a very good alternative.

heres my seafood mix... it does vary but here you go..the basic recipe...


5 pounds shelled raw shrimp
2 pound bay scallops raw
1 pound salmon fillet
2 pounds white fillets...I like using pollock, haddock, flounder when avail
multivitamens (3-4 powdered 1 a day human types)
1 cup spirulina flake
1 cup seafood flake (hBH brand) optional
1/2 cup Brine shrimp direct non-hatching decaps

Grind all fish and shrimp..one pass.. I use a manual sausage type grinder..

Mix all ingredients by hand... store in freezer in zip lock bags

hth,
al

[Greg Richardson]

Walmart sells it. In nice strips which make it easy cleaning.

Most of your grocery stores will order it for you. Get on the phone and call.

[Discus-Hans]

Hi Schmuttis,

This is what we use for feeding our Discus.

3 lbs groundbeaf (90/10% or leaner)
1/2 lbs raw cod (skinless)
1/2 lbs raw shrimp (peeled)

(everything from Sam's club)

I put the cod and shrimp through my kitchen aid meat grinder and put the
groundbeaf/cod/shrimp in the mixing bowl,
add in the mixing bowl 2 ounces of Red Paprika powder + Vitamin + minerals +
25% Discus/Angel flake (by volume)

We sometimes play a little with other additives, spirulina etc. but what I gave you is the basic.

Mix this all together and freeze it flat in a plastic bag, break off what
you need for 1 feeding and taw this,

I freeze it in cans, need about 5-6 lbs for each feeding of my Discus.

Joanne and I are every 2 weeks a whole day in the kitchen to make a 80 to 100 pounds.

I must say if you feed in the amounts we feed, it will faul your water, but our filter system take care of that in about 30 minutes. We don't use binders for a reason. We have in each 65 gallon tank between the 180 (2.5") and 30 (5")
Discus, if the food would stay together only the "bullies" will eat. With this mix at the moment it falls down, the bullis start ripping up the chunck and everybody gets food.


hope this helps, if you've questions ask,

regards,

Joanne & Hans.
Discus Hans USA

[Discus-Hans]

By the way, I used 1x beef heart, ordered it from Shoppers, because the amounts we use I asked the butcher to grind it for us, he left to much fat on it and the main reason I stopped ussing it.............................Joanne didn't want to touch it because of the idea it was HEART, I want to keep my right hand happy so we went back to ground beef,

Hans

[Ed13]

Hans, lean groundbeef but from what cut of meat?

[schmuttis]

Sam's was one of the first places that I called and they said they could not get beef heart. The three Walmarts around here only have partial food shopping - no meats to speak of. The closest Stop and Shop is 45 minutes away from us. I'll check them out the next time we are going that way and take a cooler.

For now I made a mixture of london broil, shrimp, cod, spinach, garlic, fish flakes, fish vitamins, and gelatin. So far they have been nibbling at it but not going wild over it. Hopefully that's just because it's different.

Thanks for all of the responses.

[kaceyo]

I have used eye of round roast. It's a very lean cut and pretty inexpensive. Generaly they can clean and grind it for you on the spot since most of the fat is on the outside and it will still come out leaner than x-tra lean Ground Beef (hamburger). I think I'd go to an all seafood mix tho if I couldn't get BH.

Kacey