Favorite Live Foods

[GlennR]

I'm interested in the various types of live foods that folks feed their Discus. I'd especially like to know about the live cultures which you raise yourself. Which are "best", as in easy to grow & also that your fish seem to prefer?


I used to keep White worms, which were very easy. I'd assume most worms are raised in about the same manner?
Also I hatched brine shrimp for baby discus, but that wasn't a long term thing. They seemed simpler to hatch & feed rather that keeping a culture of them going, which was a bit more "work".

So, I guess what I'm ask is "What's your favorite live food & "why"?"


thanks,
Glenn

[White Worm]

I raise white worms. They are easy and the discus love them. I've never seen discus react as well to dry or frozen food as they do to live foods. White worms are clean, easy to grow, cheap to take care of and can put some weight on your fish.

[Darrell Ward]

I use a lot of California Blackworms because the fish love em, and seem to grow like mad when you add them to the diet. They are also easy for me to get and keep. I read a lot of stuff on the forums about dangerous risks of feeding live foods to discus. I think a lot of this is unfounded. If you start with a good source, keep the organisms clean, and use common sense, I think live food can be as safe to use as any other. One thing is certain, if a discus turns down live food, it's either sick or dying. :D

[discus.hunter]

for your breeding pair, mosquito larva is the best because its boost the egg volume

[William Palumbo]

for your breeding pair, mosquito larva is the best because its boost the egg volume

I agree with that. I had very good results feeding the live mosquito larvae to my pairs...Bill

[ashaysathe]

I agree with that. I had very good results feeding the live mosquito larvae to my pairs...Bill

Interesting. I have always wondered of live food. But the only thing keeps me away from it is trying to keep the live food be a kids safe entity e.g. CBW in refrigerator in their trays.. option is buy fridge specifically for fish aka beef heart, FBW, CBW etc.
How to do this mosquito larvae "culture". May be a different or out of scope question from this thread.
Bill - will send u a pm on it respecting the intent of the thread.

[pcsb23]

Not all live foods are safe to feed. Blood worm and tubifex rarely (if ever) come from clean environemnts and carry a host of parasites. If you feed these it is not a case of if. From bitter experience. :(

[William Palumbo]

I use a RUBBERMAID barrel to culture(secretly) the mosquito larvae. When I first started I had a small pond liner in the yard, and I had Daphnia going in it, Mosquito larvae, and at the bottom in the detritus, I would get live Bloodworms. Since this was obviously in my backyard, there were no fish in it, so it would seem safe as far as disease or parasites were concerned, as I never had any problems feeding it to my Discus. But because of the West Nile Virus, I had not cultured any the last couple of summers...Bill

[Jhhnn]

I've wondered if sugar ants would be a good food. Not the larger stinging ants, but the tiny ones that try to invade our house seasonally. They'd be easy enough to catch en masse- Carrying out the trash, I once lost a piece of papertowel on the back porch that had been used to drain bacon. When I came back the next day, it was black with 1/8" ants...

I tried culturing wingless fruit flies years ago as fish food. My discus weren't crazy about 'em because the flies float, but a tank of community fish would go completely nuts for 'em, particularly giant danios.

Probably be the same way if ants float...