Why do they always do it!?

[srusso]

You ask someone to feed your fish... And you give them little pre sized bags of food in the freezer for each feeding... Please tell me why must they must find some random food you got once to try and never used again and dump loads of it in your tank!?

[DiscusFreak123]

That happened to me with my rams last year, killed one while I was on vacation.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[DiscusKev]

My thoughts are that, Discus are irresistably adorable that, when they start to swim straight towards the glass panel begging for food, you just can't help it and put more food?

[srusso]

I have to have this same person feed the fish again soon... I have gone ahead and removed all food from the area...

[jball1125]

I just asked my girlfriend to feed my fish since I'm away at my moms house. Hope she doesn't get persuaded to do what I told her NOT to do a million times.

[ILuvTropicalFish]

They are probably doing what my hubby does. They think the fish are starving! So they feed more! These sweet personalities are being misunderstood by well meaning individuals. Tell this person that they really only need what you have carefully prepackaged and it does not help to feed them more. I feel for you.

[joanr]

Which brings up a question I've often wondered about; why do Discus always act like they are starving to death? Even a half hour after they have just had a large meal. Don't they ever get satisfied?

[Jhhnn]

If you're only going away for a few days, the safe answer is to not have the fish fed at all, particularly with adults. Small fry are a different story, I suspect- hopefully I'll get to learn about them over the next year or so.

I try to provide enough food at each feeding so that it takes 'em 20 minutes or so to clean it up. If there's a little bit left over, (a little bit!) they'll clean it up over the next hour or so, anyway. I think growth is more even that way- the aggressive feeders get satiated first, and the other guys still get plenty to eat.

But Joan's right- they'll act hungry even when there's food on the bottom of the tank... maybe they think they'll get something different, better- dunno. Or maybe swimming to the front, bobbing up and down has more than one meaning, but I doubt it...

[srusso]

I found a huge white mass of fuzz at the bottom corner of the tank when I got home, a few fuzzy tetra bits as well... he put a freeze dried krill in the tank. When I bought the stuff, the picture made the krill look a little bigger then a brine shrimp... but when I opened it, they where massive! The longest it could have been there was 24 hours...

[Eddie]

I would have had to open up a nice BIG can of WHOOP A$$ on that individual. :D

[vera]

My thoughts are that, Discus are irresistably adorable that, when they start to swim straight towards the glass panel begging for food, you just can't help it and put more food?

Very true , my mom use to pity my poor " starving "fishie and on my return i would find more food in the tank then water LOL,
after that never asked anyone again to feed my fish , for me automatic feeders set at minimum work best
TC

[Yboat]

I find that if I ask either a reef keeper or another discus keeper to take care of my tank, I have zero probs. John Q fishkeeper= over fed.

[Discus-n00b]

Which brings up a question I've often wondered about; why do Discus always act like they are starving to death? Even a half hour after they have just had a large meal. Don't they ever get satisfied?

Oh I know, its like they don't ever get food! Begging Oliver Twist style!

[diamond_discus]

Which brings up a question I've often wondered about; why do Discus always act like they are starving to death? Even a half hour after they have just had a large meal. Don't they ever get satisfied?

My dog would do the same too ... Just want to eat all the time ...

For my discus, I much rather to see them behave like this, than showing no interest for food at all .. ;)

Back to the original question .... If you were to go away just for a few days (even up to a week), you probably won't even need to feed them (if they are not frys). Also, you can always use an auto-feeder to feed a bit of dry food (pellets or flakes). I much rather trust my Ehiem AutoFeeder than asking anyone to feed my fishes. ;)

[srusso]

My dog would do the same too ... Just want to eat all the time ...

For my discus, I much rather to see them behave like this, than showing no interest for food at all .. ;)

Back to the original question .... If you were to go away just for a few days (even up to a week), you probably won't even need to feed them (if they are not frys). Also, you can always use an auto-feeder to feed a bit of dry food (pellets or flakes). I much rather trust my Ehiem AutoFeeder than asking anyone to feed my fishes. ;)

I just got one... that is part of the problem! I grabbed one 2 weeks ago, with a bunch of different kinds of dry food, they will not eat a single bit of anything dried! So after that the bottom of my tank looked like a LFS stocked with years of food! :mad: that my discus will not eat AND the damn fish store will not take any of it back, I guess I cant blame them...

[Spardas]

Train them to eat flake/pellets.