discus feeding behaviour...periods of pigishness

[henward]

in arowana speak, they fast occasionally.

say an arowana will eat and horde food for a couple weeks and fast or semi fast for some days or a week or so.
so it alternates...theyd ont always consume food like a pig.

is this the same wtih discus?

do they alternate in pigishness?
i have one, a big male checkerboard.
he used to eat so much - belly really fat...then this week, he is not so pigish. eats, picks on food.....and his belly still is cetainly containing food lol but not as big and fat as it was for the last two weeks.

is this normal? its not just him, some too.... eat lots then not much then becomes pigs again.

also, discus belly is generally an indication of foo they eat?
so his belly clearly has a food bump.... does this mean he has eaten or has food on the belly?
or can discus have a POT BELLY like humans and have big bellies but not much food in there?

Thanks

[DiscusKev]

Some discus don't have an 'elastic' stomach, they need to be trained so that they are used to eating a lot, hence expanding their stomach and has the ability to eat more. This is well explained in Andrew's book.

If you messed around with your water, your discus could lose it's monster appetite, but they will be back to normal when they feel like it.

Even when Discus eat, their stomach don't necessarily pump up, it depends on how much they eat, some eats like pigs whilst some eat as much as they can consume without regurgitating it. Thick sized discus generally eat more, whilst the thin looking one don't as they were not power fed when young.

[henward]

interesting.

good to keep in mind.
i do notice that some discus do tend to eat more.
some dont....

what is feeding too much?
thats a tough one.
say filtration is not the issue.
what is feeding too much?
how do you know you are feeding too much?

[mjs020294]

My Discus are a lot keener for food, and are eating more, since we introduced an automatic fish feeder for during the day. I feed them at 7:00am, and then the feeder does 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm before my son takes over at 5:00pm and one last feed at around 7:00pm. All of those feeds are the exact same portion of a mixture of flake food. We also feed them FBW a couple of times a day as well.

Since the feeder went in and they have had more frequent but smaller meals they have become very eager and pretty greedy.

[DiscusKev]

what is feeding too much?
thats a tough one.
say filtration is not the issue.
what is feeding too much?
how do you know you are feeding too much?

It would actually depends how big your discus are, it would be a better guide as to 'how much is too much'. Also bare in mind that the quantity of each discus is getting a fair feed, there is often competition on feeding (biggests eats first).

From my experience (shown on my video), when you hand feed them, all of the discus will be rushing towards it (must be trained when young) and when the big ones are full (and that the food isn't finished, which is unlikely), I would drop the food to let the smaller one eat it (big one won't be competing as much since they are full; they would just take small peck at the crumbs/leftovers). This ensure that there is no runt within the group.

So, to answer your question, if there are leftovers at 5minutes [max], you are feeding too much as most would have eaten everything by the time you've placed it into the tank/system. Then again, you have to bare in mind that the size of the discus would affect this 'experiment'.

Just my experience at raising juveniles to adults,

[Jhhnn]

I'm sure others look at it differently, but I'm of the opinion that it's impossible to actually overfeed young discus using beefheart, seafood mix, or any of the frozen foods. flakes and pellets may be a different story- my fish never would eat 'em. They're more stubborn than I am.

It is possible to overfeed the biofilter, so the more food that's introduced, the more water changing that's necessary.

I've been successful growing out sub adults in BB tanks feeding 3 times a day, sometimes extra on weekends, enough so that it takes 15 minutes or so for the fish to clean it up, maybe a little longer. The more aggressive feeders fill up first, back off on the others, who get their turn, too. Everybody gets fat bellies, and it seems to me that growth is more even.

Might try using a timer to figure out correct portions. If the food's all gone in less than 15 minutes, add a little more, then increase the portion size next time to account for that.

My adult discus kinda come and go wrt their appetites, but the younger fish always act like they're hungry, even when they're full...

[April]

its also possible he was going through a big growth spurt before maturing..or..its also possible that theres breeding action going on..or getting started..and sometimes they all of a sudden slow down on feeding.
i find when they are around 8 months to 10 months..they eat like pigs..get a big growth spurt..get their full adult colours..and then slow down and alot more pushing..and selecting ends of tanks..etc..and less eating . also once adults they dont need as much as they arent growing as much.