Training to eat dry foods: How?

[valery]

Hello,

Most of my discus absolutely refuse to eat dried foods, and the majority of the fish will ONLY eat frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms. Only one of the fish eats Tetra color bits and Tetra flakes. I know these foods are nutritious and filled with protein (which is why he is the biggest) and I would like the rest to follow.

So my question is, is there any way to get all the discus to start eating dried foods? Why is this happening to all but that one? Are they just spoiled? If I need to starve them, for how long would you recommend?

Val

[Eddie]

Hey Val, yes they are spoiled. Discus are like spoiled brats.....me included. :D Many people advise not to starve your fish but it isn't a problem. You will NEVER see a post about somebody who starved their fish to get them eating another food, ending up with stunted fish. It will never happen and has never happened. Your fish will actually develop better, once you get them eating a more rounded diet. When we say starve, we are not talking like a month. At most, I'd go a week. This will have ZERO impact on their growth, I dont care who tells you. And it doesn't matter what age the fish are. Breeders starve super small juveniles all the time for shipping and the fish never skip a beat.

Some tactics people try are feeding small quantities of the new (dry) with the regular food. I find this rarely works as the fish only eat the old food and leave the new food to foul the water. I starve the fish for a day or 2, bump up the heat a little and then give them a small amount of the dry/new food. If they dont take it, thats fine, not a problem DONT GIVE IN! ONLY give them the dry food for at least a week, without giving them any other foods. In the long run, it is MUCH better for the fish to be addicted to a pellet than a blood worm. ;)


Eddie

[1nvad3r]

If you havent tried ON PrimeReef flake its good one to get them started. Eddie reccomended it to me and never regretted buying it :)

[RodneyL001]

Discus are the most finicky eaters that I've seen. Mine wouldn't eat when I first got them. I enticed them with live black worms, then with a few missed meals, they started to accept a variety of foods. I still treat them to live and frozen foods, but they now accept different types of dried foods.

[valery]

Thank you for the help guys.
Eddie, thanks for clarifying the starvation thing! I was never really sure. I will try it out for one week. (are hikari brine shrimp really that non-nutricious?? 6.8% min. of crude protein).

1nvad3r, I will try the ON primereef. (Ive tried lots of them, but never that one =] ).

RodneyL001, discus that I bought from an LFS are the ones that refuse to eat dried. (they only fed them brine at the store) and discus that i bought from one of the sponsors on here, eat the dried foods.. i guess it's from how these fish are raised as well. Habits?

Val

[rickztahone]

Thank you for the help guys.
Eddie, thanks for clarifying the starvation thing! I was never really sure. I will try it out for one week. (are hikari brine shrimp really that non-nutricious?? 6.8% min. of crude protein).

1nvad3r, I will try the ON primereef. (Ive tried lots of them, but never that one =] ).

RodneyL001, discus that I bought from an LFS are the ones that refuse to eat dried. (they only fed them brine at the store) and discus that i bought from one of the sponsors on here, eat the dried foods.. i guess it's from how these fish are raised as well. Habits?

Val

it is not so much that the brine shrimp isn't nutritious (i use it myself), but it's better to have your discus on a well rounded diet.

[mmorris]

How old are the discus? How long have you had them? I would NEVER purposefully starve a young juvie. Discus grow up stunted because, for whatever reason, at some point when they were young they received insufficient food. If they are eating something, I wouldn't starve them for a day.

[valery]

How old are the discus? How long have you had them? I would NEVER purposefully starve a young juvie. Discus grow up stunted because, for whatever reason, at some point when they were young they received insufficient food. If they are eating something, I wouldn't starve them for a day.

I suspect the discus are all over 1 year old. (Two that I wasn't sure about have successful spawns, but still look small)

[mmorris]

OK, they should be fine if they go without for a few days.

[valery]

ok great..will try it
thanks mmorris

[RodneyL001]

I just wanted to add this about 2 beautiful discus that I got from a sponsor on this site that went almost 2 weeks without eating much at all. I got them to eat some live black worms, now they eat everything I put in the tank. I just knew for sure they would die, but they are doing well. I am sure it was stressful on them being sent through the mail. I know it is hard to watch your fish not eat, just keep offering them a variety, a keep your water quality high with frequent water changes, and they should be ok.