Waning your discus to eat bloom worms

[The_Finglonger]

I have two discus, one a pigeon blood and one a cobalt (4 inch).

The pigeon blood will eat everything and the Cobalt will only eat flakes, so I decided to exclusively feed blood worms to try to get my Cobalt to eat blood worms too so that he doesn't just grow up on flakes.

I'm on day 4 and my Cobalt is still not eating. I noticed the Cobalt being less active, not begging for food as my pigeon blood does when I stand in front of my tank. Am I too be concerned or should I wait it out? I hope I'm not stressing the Cobalt out. :(

I've been doing 20% daily water changes.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

I think many discus lovers will tell you that they need variety in their diet. Is there a reason you are only wanting to feed bloodworms?

I am feeding my 5 month old discus flake, beefheart mix, freeze dried blackworms and frozen bloodworms. My pairs are eating frozen bloodworms and blackworms.

They can be stubborn as my one pair, but hopefully they will get hungry enough to eat what you are offering them.

[The_Finglonger]

No reason on just blood worms. I'm trying to get them on a varied diet and have blood worms as one of the staple of their diets.

I also have beef heart, and they've eaten that. I thought I would introduce different types of food one at a time to get them used to each. If I feed all routinely, the Cobalt just waits it out for his preferred flakes.

[bonsai dave]

when ever I want to introduce new food. I do it when I feed in the morning. I find that works best. Imo

[brewmaster15]

The pigeon blood will eat everything and the Cobalt will only eat flakes, so I decided to exclusively feed blood worms to try to get my Cobalt to eat blood worms too so that he doesn't just grow up on flakes. The flakes are not necessarily a bad thing...depending on the type of flakes....they can be very nutritious...more so than blood worms IMO.
Also try different brands of blood worms...many fish do well on Hikari brand.
If the fish doesn't want blood worms...not a big deal...try something else... Theres plenty of different kinds of food to try.

hth,
al

[The_Finglonger]

when ever I want to introduce new food. I do it when I feed in the morning. I find that works best. Imo

I've tried the morning thing, even waited until the end of the day to feed, neither have worked so far.


The flakes are not necessarily a bad thing...depending on the type of flakes....they can be very nutritious...more so than blood worms IMO.
Also try different brands of blood worms...many fish do well on Hikari brand.
If the fish doesn't want blood worms...not a big deal...try something else... Theres plenty of different kinds of food to try.

hth,
al

That's good to hear! I'll give the Cobalt another day to give bloodworms a chance. I've been using SF Bay Brand. Maybe I'll give the Hikari brand a shot.

thanks!

[rich815]

My 7 discus are ravenous for blood worms or black worms and I cannot get any but 2-3 of them to even touch flakes! Good thing is they all love my home-made fish/shrimp/beefheart mix with a load of other stuff like vits, spinach, spirulina, etc. so they do get a varied diet. But your problem is opposite from most of what I hear. I get the feeling that once that cobalt nibbles a little bit of bloodworms finally you'll have a hard time getting him to go BACK to flakes!

[rich815]

I've been using SF Bay Brand. Maybe I'll give the Hikari brand a shot.

thanks!

I find my discus seem to prefer and go after with more gusto the Hikari brand. Plus Hikari supposedly is "encapsulated" with vitamins where I'm not sure if San Francisco Brand is. Also, IMO, SF Bay is not quite the quality of Hikari, it's brown instead of red, and I see lots of empty worm casings, and bits that do not always look like worms...

[Eddie]

I have two discus, one a pigeon blood and one a cobalt (4 inch).

The pigeon blood will eat everything and the Cobalt will only eat flakes, so I decided to exclusively feed blood worms to try to get my Cobalt to eat blood worms too so that he doesn't just grow up on flakes.

I'm on day 4 and my Cobalt is still not eating. I noticed the Cobalt being less active, not begging for food as my pigeon blood does when I stand in front of my tank. Am I too be concerned or should I wait it out? I hope I'm not stressing the Cobalt out. :(

I've been doing 20% daily water changes.

I would actually NOT feed any bloodworms and if the fish only eats flakes, its a million times better than only eating bloodworms. WAY more nutrients in a flake food by far.

I never ever feed bloodworms, just a personal preference. Discus get addicted to them and its a poor diet if fed exclusively.

Eddie

[The_Finglonger]

I would actually NOT feed any bloodworms and if the fish only eats flakes, its a million times better than only eating bloodworms. WAY more nutrients in a flake food by far.

I never ever feed bloodworms, just a personal preference. Discus get addicted to them and its a poor diet if fed exclusively.

Eddie

I figured it'd be the other way around. When I first got them, the cobalt was bigger than the pigeon blood, now it's the other way around. I thought the blood worms had much to do about that. Well, I guess I should be luck both will eat flakes. :)

[Eddie]

I figured it'd be the other way around. When I first got them, the cobalt was bigger than the pigeon blood, now it's the other way around. I thought the blood worms had much to do about that. Well, I guess I should be luck both will eat flakes. :)

Nope, should be fine. What is happening here is that you are feeding different foods and the pigeon eats everything and the cobalt is only eating the flakes. Feed flakes along with every feeding to ensure the cobalt is eating just as much as the others. ;)

[mathao]

different strains of discus grows at different rates. if your cobalt eats only flakes that very good for it , my discus eats anything , but i mostly feed flakes and pellets, then i don't have to worry about diseases, and i haven't posted anything on the disease section since the bubble of gas incedent since i got them abot 7 months ago.

[The_Finglonger]

that's good to hear, thanks for the input guys! :thumbsup: