Introducing greater variety in diet

[ojdewet]

I am worried that I am not providing my discus with a large enough variety of food. I currently feed the following:


tetra flakes specifically designed for discus (with added vitamins and minerals)
Frozen brine shrimp
Frozen blood worms


I give them flakes in the morning, brine shrimp when I get home from work and blood worms later in the evening.

I leave the food about 10 minutes then syphon off excess (of which there is not too much).

Any recommendations to optimise their diet?

Regards
OJ

[pcsb23]

Sounds like a reasonable staple diet to me.

Additional options could include earth worms, white worms, red wrigglers and chopped mussels etc.

[seanyuki]

Hi OJ

I syphon the uneaten food after an hour after feeding or do a large water change......feeding them beefheart plus a little bit of frozen bloodworms later.

I leave the food about 10 minutes then syphon off excess (of which there is not too much).

Cheers
Francis



I am worried that I am not providing my discus with a large enough variety of food. I currently feed the following:


tetra flakes specifically designed for discus (with added vitamins and minerals)
Frozen brine shrimp
Frozen blood worms


I give them flakes in the morning, brine shrimp when I get home from work and blood worms later in the evening.

I leave the food about 10 minutes then syphon off excess (of which there is not too much).

Any recommendations to optimise their diet?

Regards
OJ

[dpt8]

Do your discus eat the mussels just chopped into small pieces ? Chop it when it is alive??

[dpt8]

Paul Could you explain how you prepare the chopped mussels ?? Do you cook it a little ?? Thanks, David

[architect1]

i have changed my discus's diet in the last 1-3 weeks. and its assorted sea food, and veg. The love it it took a couple days till they started eating it

squid
shrimp
muscles
some hard white thing

chicken
beef

color bits when I'm gone
and formula 1 pellets.

oh and I leave the sea food till morning and clean it up.

[Rod]

A beef heart mix adds good variety, there are lots of great formulas you could try with a little research. Here is mine as an example:

600 grams prepared heart meat (no fat or sinew)
300 grams prawn meat
100 grams fruit (normally i use either banana, strawberry, apple, mango..)
1 level teaspoon of naturose astaxanthin powder

Mix it together in a food processor with a little water (to make a good consistincy) and freeze into a slab. To feed i grate the frozen mix with a cheese grater, larger grate for 3"+ discus, fine grate for juvies. Feed twice a day for juvies, once a day for young growouts and a few times a week for pairs. The other foods you feed will round out a pretty good diet for your discus.

also earthworms are very hard to beat imo, discus love them once they are conditioned to eat them, and will eat until near bursting point if allowed. Fed regularly your discus have great potential to reach optimum size.