How long to leave beef heart in the tank while "training"

[JaredP]

My guys only eat freeze dried black worms, from my hand. I want them to have a more balanced diet. They peck at pellets, and that's about it.

My current mix and can be found here http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showpost.php?p=629473&postcount=135 .

It breaks apart quickly in the water(well, somewhat quickly). How long do I want to leave it in before cleaning it out? I plan to do a large water change after, and they will only be getting the beef heart mix until they take it. My only concern is leaving it too long and causing fouling.

[diamond_discus]

I only have barebottom tank. So it makes it a lot easier to do big water change.
When I train new fish for beefheart, I use a much smaller piece. I throw that into the tank in the morning before I leave for work and leave it in there until I come home from work. The first few days the fishes probably won't touch it. When I get home, I will remove the beefheart with a net. Then I will feed them a little food that they will eat. At night, I will do a 90% WC .. I will repeat this process until they start eating the BH ... until the day when I come home from work, there is no more BH at the bottom. Then I increase the size of the cube.

Others may disagree with this approach because people typically don't want to leave food in the tank for so long. But hey, I have to work during the day .. and I think the best time to train them to eat is in the morning when the fish are most hungry.

If your mix break apart quickly, you may consider adding another part of raw shrimp or add a banana. If your fish doesn't touch it, it should stay as a cube at the bottom for a long time.

I use the following mix portion : 2 parts BH, 2 parts shrimp, 1 part fish, and other ingredients.

[JaredP]

THat sounds good then, I noticed that it appeared that they had nibbled on it. They at this point are so spoiled that they are going to get just beef heart, and they'll start to eat it =D.

I think you made the clear point, keep the 80-90% changes(which Ive been doing daily) and it should be no problem