feeding Juvies

[Hasseness]

I'm about to buy 8, 2 inch Juvies. My local store sells Beef Heart so I'll be making one of those recipes up top. I have frozen bloodworms, flakes and tetra bits.

I'll be able to feed them 4-5 times a day.

My question is: how often should I be feeding them the beef heart and worms?

If they do get bloat, should I put the bloated one in quarantine with epson salt and feed it de-shelled peas? (l do this with my other fish)

[Harriett]

How often I would feed the beefheart depends on my water change schedule. The frozen bloodworms doesn't pollute the tank, so no big deal, but the beefheart degrades the water quality quickly. For juvies that size, I'd be doing very large daily water changes--and beefheart would be the meal fed right before the water change. I'd be feeding 5+ times a day, only as much of any food as they will eat in 15 minutes or so--so there is no food sitting on the bottom. I usually have a few bristlenose plecos in there to keep the glass clean and clean up any food debris anyhow, though. I like to feed about 2/3 frozen food and 1/3 pellets, etc. Dry foods are great to stick in an auto feeder so you can feed them 5-6 x day total.
Hope this helps!
Harriett

[calihawker]

Harriett,

I like the idea of putting the plecos in with them and I'm wondering if that would work for me. I'm putting 12 juvies in a 60 gallon bare bottom cube with 2 sponge filters and 50% water changes daily. The plecos don't bother the discus at all? Do they need anything else in the tank? A place to hide maybe?

Thanks!

[ncyracer]

Harriett,

I like the idea of putting the plecos in with them and I'm wondering if that would work for me. I'm putting 12 juvies in a 60 gallon bare bottom cube with 2 sponge filters and 50% water changes daily. The plecos don't bother the discus at all? Do they need anything else in the tank? A place to hide maybe?

Thanks!

How long are they going to be in that tank. That seems a little much to put in a 60

[calihawker]

Yeah, I thought I was going to just quarantine them, then put them in the display but then I decided they should spend some time growing out since the tank is so big, 300 gallons. So I don't plan on having them in there too long since they're already 2" in diameter. I can't change how many I ordered as they were hand picked for me. I would say grow them another inch or so. If it's a matter of water quality, my water change setup is fully automated and the tap water here is very discus friendly so I can change 50%, 75% or whatever daily.

Thanks for the input!

Steve

[Harriett]

The bigger the water change the better--if you actually can do 75% a day, you will be fine for a good while. I know experienced discus hobbyists who have done far riskier numbers. Remember to only feed dirty foods like beefheart right before you do your water change; better to feed smaller amounts that all get eaten more frequently than larger amounts less often that sit in the tank, of course. I usually throw a little piece of drift wood in for the bbristlenose plecos. They digest food better with a little cellulose in the diet.
Best of luck
Harriett

[ncyracer]

Yea 75% would be great. Good luck and i hope they come out great.:)

[calihawker]

Thanks! I'm a little nervous since I'm paying an ultra premium price for what are supposed to be hand picked, ultra premium discus.:o

I pick them up Thursday!