Discus Diet

[rpitonyak]

Good Morning Everyone! I purchased my first (2) discus Saturday, a blue diamond and a pigeon blood (4"). The store that I bought them from fed them a combination of live and frozen blood worms once a day. I have looked around online and have seen that this is not a complete diet for these fish. My question is: should the addition of frozen beef heart in the morning along with mixed bloodworms in the evening be a complete diet? I have neons in the tank and feed them NLS small fish pellets and Omega 3 flakes. The Discus do not touch them at all. Thanks in advance.

 

[lizardboy]

I've never kept discus, but from what I've read beef heart is better as an occasional treat because it's too fatty.

 

[Termato]

Good Morning Everyone! I purchased my first (2) discus Saturday, a blue diamond and a pigeon blood (4"). The store that I bought them from fed them a combination of live and frozen blood worms once a day. I have looked around online and have seen that this is not a complete diet for these fish. My question is: should the addition of frozen beef heart in the morning along with mixed bloodworms in the evening be a complete diet? I have neons in the tank and feed them NLS small fish pellets and Omega 3 flakes. The Discus do not touch them at all. Thanks in advance.

I feed mine:
50% blood worms
15% Omage 1 flakes (I started over the weekend and occasionally do this when they need more nutrients)
15% Spirulina Brine Shrimp
10% Blackworms (when I can get them)
10% Daphinia (just started and they don't always eat it yet)

If you keep them 2 days without eating, they'll eat what you feed them. Someone on here said jokingly they'd even eat cardboard if you starved them long enough ahhaha and I'd believe it too. I have tried to get them to eat some vegetables but I haven't succeeded yet. Let me know if you find anything else that works. There is also this gel replacement for blackworms someone mentioned at the last meeting. I'm looking into getting some as I've seen that a lot of people have good luck with that.

 

[dhavalsp]

Depending on the size the diet has to be varied. If these are small discus you may have to feed them 3-4 times a day. Once they grow up u can reduce it to 2 times a day.

Stress free healthy discus will eat everything and accept other food when starved for a day or two. But then again discus can be picky and I have seen discus starving themselves to death.

As a general rule whenever I get any new fish, I starve them on first day and they are ready to go at any food from day 2.

something to try, smash very little garlic with your fish food make a small lump and try dropping it in.

 

[dhavalsp]

P.S. Victor, I would add some protein to that diet, especially at the size you got. For veggies, I would grind them with beef heart and/or shrimp but in the end a good portion of veggies which separate out will not be eaten and affect the water quality and add work during cleaning.

 

[Becca]

Once they settle in, they'll eat anything. Mine even pick at steamed broccoli that I feed the plecos in their tank (and also my arm while I'm placing the steamed broccoli).

It's important to give them variety and supplement with a high quality flake or pellet food. Discus have tiny mouths and move kind of slowly, so flake might be better than pellets, especially if it's a pellet that sinks quickly.

I also suggest you look up some other threads about Discus. There was one recently where the difference between a healthy diet and speed-growing was discussed.

 

[Termato]

P.S. Victor, I would add some protein to that diet, especially at the size you got. For veggies, I would grind them with beef heart and/or shrimp but in the end a good portion of veggies which separate out will not be eaten and affect the water quality and add work during cleaning.

That's a great suggestion about mixing it together and adding some garlic. I haven't been mixing it as much as I should. I'm sure that will help them start taking in more veggies. Great suggestion.

 

[rpitonyak]

Thank you everyone for your advise.