Discus are picky?

[Alex_discus]

I have been feeding my discus 3 times a day...

Nutrafin Max is what they get ( flakes )

once a while i give them frozen bloodworms but i notice they are never too excited about them. Most of the warms end up dropping to the bottom of my tank and lay there till my pleko finds it.

As I am typing this post I see one discus messing with a worm... eating one then throwing it back out.

What should I do and what foods should i give them.

They're maybe 7 months old and the biggest i have in the tank is maybe 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch.

If there is some homemade food I can make them hit me up with some reciepies. Ive heared of the beef heart one with spinach, flakes and garlic.

[WhiteDevil]

ok do flake ONCE a day, and frozen at breakfast and dinner, i use bloodworms, spirulina brine and mysis shrimp along with discusmadness.com's beefheart mix.


Yes they are picky, very picky, its like being married to several high maintenance women at once.(no offense ladies but its the best comparison, and yes i am married to one that I would categorize as high maintenance, lol.)

Mine dont eat tetra or wardleys or nutrafin, they refuse it and will starve rather then eat it. Mine do very good on a mix of cichlid,angel,discus and veggie flakes from Kensfish.com.

How many are in the 45? I had a 45H as a discus tank and rather quickly had to get a much larger tank as they can grow pretty fast if on quality foods.

[Alex_discus]

I have 4 discus 2 that are maybe a little bigger than an inch and a half.
2 others that are maybe 2-3 inchs.
Also i have a angel fish which is the biggest.

I want a bigger aquarium like you cannot imagine but i am limited to what i can get in size since i am in an apartment and well i am not the one who pays the bills. My tank already takes more place in my room than my bed so you can imagine how much i want this to happen.

and as far as feeding them bloodworms for morning and dinner, they dont seem to like it much. They will eat one or two and be over it.
It could maybe be my water conditions ... ?
My kh 5.9, GH 3.0 and ph is 6.4.



here is a pic of the tank
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Theyre soo shy it's unbelievable. I get to see them come to the edge of the water once a while. They like to stay in the bottom or half way till the top of the tank.

And for some odd reason I got told 45G is small for them but yet they still found the time and room to lay eggs on my filter tube. But no success on having babbies since my angel fish like to rub up on the eggs and then eatting them lol.

at one momment i thought if it was possible to have discus-angel fish babbies. :14:

[WhiteDevil]

your Gh and Kh well Gh should be 3-6 much like the Kh


45 is going to be too small once they reach the 3-4" range.

Ph is fine, I see its got wood and thats about it, discus need coverage, lots of coverage to feel "safe"


Do they all swim together and hang out together?


what brand bloodworms are you using, mine literally REFUSE to eat any bloodworms that are frozen less Hikari. And they only eat it thawed.

[Alex_discus]

My discus hang out together yes and no. My smallest one like to stay hidden under the driftwood and pretty much hangs out there. Theyre very teritorial. My 2 biggest ones like to pick on the smaller ones most of the time.
And now I am surprised because the leader the pack is now being dominated by the others. Like the tables have turned. But he has still kept his nice color and isnt looking any different.
The brand of my bloodworms are SanFrancisco Bay Brand Sally's, Red Mosquito Larvae.

When i feed them a block of worms i usually take a glass of tank water put it in there and stir it up till they all become unstcuck and then just pour it in.

[WhiteDevil]

I stay away from SFBB and sally's mainly because my fish refuse to eat them, toss hikari in there and they eat it like candy.

[Spardas]

What's your water change regime?

Sadly to say this but over the past 7 months, you have improperly cared for your discus in terms of space, diet, and I'm going to assume water change too. They're stunted to say the least.

As far as your inhabitants are concerned, what are they? You mentioned an angelfish but are there more than one? Do you have other fishes aside from the angelfish? Is this a planted tank?

Wild discus can be picky at first but once properly acclimated will become verocious eaters.

Their domestic cousins are even more easy and will chow down on everything if given time to develop a liking for new food.

Now, what's done is done so we can't do anything about their stunted outlook now.

Feed a more varied and balance diet. Since they are impartial to bloodworms, you can try to entice them with some live CA blackworms. While doing this, you can try mixing it with bloodworms as well too. I agree with WD that Hikari is the brand to go to for frozen FBW.

Freeze dried food is also good to have as part of the diet. Research on seafood recipes as I find them to be the best for discus.

The trick about getting the discus to accept new food is to usually try to feed them first thing in the morning with the new food mixed with the old.

For example, if I wanted my discus to try something totally new that they wouldn't even touch (let's say frozen mysis shrimp); I just starve them for a day or two and wait for daybreak and feed them that food with their favorite food. Then I slowly decrease the amount of their favorite food with more of the new food in the mix.

There are actually many ways to get your discus to accept food but the thing I stress here is that if properly cared for; they will not be shy and will eat almost everything you give them. They will also greet you just like any other cichlid if they're happy and healthy. They are absolutely not picky.

[Alex_discus]

Thanks you guys for the help.
And spardas, I have only 1 angel fish, 8 cardinal tetras 1 pleko and then 4 discus that is all. Oh and some snails that were stuck to my plants that i had bought at the store which are now multiplying. But there small and i doubt cause any problem as they only come out at night and during the day hide in the gravel.
My water changes havent been the best I agree it was stupid of me. At the beggining I was very igniorant oh the basics to having discus. Now though I have been changing my water every week removing almost half of the water. But I havent changed my water this week once because I just recentrly bought my cardinals and didnt want to.... I dont know kill them i guess. I wanted them to get used to the tank before i start performing my water changes, maybe what i did doesnt change anything but i didnt want to take a risk and wanted to play it safe.

My temperature though is always at 82-84 and I has also told by WD that I need a better lighting system which i will be getting.

I dont have any plants except for one and i will show you the picture if you can figure it out because i have forgotten the name of it.
I will soon be changing my gravel to put cichlid sand and then I will attempt to make it more of a planted aquarium. Trying to put some java fern or something like that to stick on my driftwood.

[WhiteDevil]

wild discus mostly come from tannin rich blackwater regions of the amazon with heavy leaf litter and wood, there reallly isnt many plants that are around them in the wild, the dark water makes it nearly unpossible for the sun to penetrate to get plant growth.

i like the planted look and the benefits. Alot of discus owners i know keep them in bare bottom tanks only.

I do 2 PWC's a week, a 20% and a 50% on my 210, on the 45H when it was a small discus tank was the same, one 20% and one 50%. I do have one stunted one he/she has never grown a bit since they arrived at my house. He/She does knock the big ones around and nothing bothers him/her in the tank.
In all humor I can muster, you could consider selling them as Nano discus lol.

Discus are not hard to keep(these are my first Ive ever kept) it just takes alot of patience.

[Alex_discus]

I recently bought a new bottle of food for my discus. Nutrafin Max Discus formula. I used to feed them the Nutrafin Max Flakes. I bought this small bottle for 25 $ and did like I was told... starve them for 2 days and feed them the food, but they dont give a damn. They suck up the granular food and throw it back out. So now I fed them my flakes and they're everywhere, I dont understand....

[WhiteDevil]

I dont know any discus who eat just flake or crumbles or sticks ect. try hikari frozen foods, even turning the light off for them to eat might help.


also, get garlic infused foods, they will eat no matter what with that garlic in the water.

[Sarkazmo]

NLS Thera +A 1mm pellets... Lots of garlic and it's one of the best foods on the market.

Sark

[3dees]

I would try Mal's freeze dried blackworms. A little pricey but I have yet to hear anyone say thier discus refused them. my wilds eat anthing except mysis, but they go crazy over the blackworms.

[Lady Hobbs]

Guestion? I thought Discus were not supposed to be fed flake food or at least, none that is dry without being soaked first.

I don't have Discus but still would like to know. Thanks

[Spardas]

Alex,

Getting them to accept new food and especially flakes/pellets will be difficult and not all cases are the same in how you entice them to eat.

For fishes that are already shy and not aggressive like your fishes, you'll need to do more than just starve them.

You need to feed them first with food that they will readily take and after a few weeks, you can then add in other food along with that food that they take readily.

Now, it may be different for different fishes as to what they will go after at first; maybe it's BH or SF mix, maybe frozen bloodworms, maybe live blackworms, maybe live brine shrimp, maybe freeze dried blackworms, or even maybe tetra colorbits. This is something that you'll have to find out with your own particular fishes and from that point on, you can then ween them onto other diet.

Not all cases are the same. Discus can definitely eat flake food and pellets. They may not take it up immediately but if you keep at it day after day while feeding some of the food that they like, they'll develop a taste for flake/pellets. This is the same with any kind of new food you wish to introduce to the discus.

I once wanted to give them frozen krill to enhance the red coloration but they just either stare at it or eat it and spit it back out. So, I decide to make a new batch of Seafood mix and combine it with the krill. They still spit it out but day after day, they would eat it mixed in with the seafood mix and after a week, I can simply drop in krills for them to eat.

It's about understanding and tricking them into eating what you want them to eat; not what they want to eat. All fishes aren't alike and it'll take some guesswork and trials and errors to make them eat new things.

LH,

Discus can definitely eat flake food. The only thing that needs to be soaked would be pellets. Also, so long as you provide them a balance diet, they won't have any issues. It's also a good idea to deworm them a few times every year just to keep things clean in the inside.

[Lady Hobbs]

Thanks sweetie. Noisy minds like to know.

Thanks for answering my Guestion???? LOL

[Alex_discus]

Alright thanks for the tips !

I will mix some of my flakes with my granules to get them to switch...
I also went to my butcher store and ordered a beef heart, should be getting it tomorow or the day after. Will need to find a good beefheart reciepe.

And do you think I need to put 2 diferent types of food since I have a angelfish or he can just always eat what my discus eat ? Because my food is specifically for discus. I'll try and watch to see if he eats the granules and tell you next time. If he eats it I would think then it's ok ...

[Spardas]

Alex,

BH will foul your water quicker. This would mean more water changes. Seafood mix is cleaner and in my opinion a better mix choice overall. Freeze dried blackworms are also another excellent source of nutrition on top of flakes and pellets.

[Alex_discus]

Well I have already ordered my BH and just came back from the butcher. He told me that the BH is frozen and then if I unfreeze it I will have to serve it right away... re-freezing it after would not be good since it can cause bacteria or something like that. SO I wanted to know for fish when you guys make BH mixes, are your BH's frozen when you get them ? And would you do the same as me and un freeze the heart make the mix and then re freeze it, causing no harm to the fish?
My butcher told me that the only way he can get beefhearts is frozen because he cannot get it fast enough here and be that fresh.

And spardas, would you have any link to a nice and easy seafood mix? I would like to serve different types of varieties. And for the BH, I now perform water changes every 3 days ... that should be ok right ?

[Spardas]

One of the recipes that I have used is in here:
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As for the BH, you can choose to add it with the seafood mix as well. How many pounds did you get? Don't thaw it out and just use a heavy duty meat grinder and mix it with the ingredients from the seafood mix. Then put it in the freezer. It should be fine.

I usually get mine unfrozen.

How much water do you change each time? Also, it'll depend on how often you feed it. They may not take to it initially and may take some time to get them to new food.

[Alex_discus]

Ok! looks like a nice recipe... I will try it out.

As for my beefheart it was frozen and being un-frozen at the butcher store at the momment I am writting. So since it was frozen then unfrozen and then will be re-frozen for a second time after i finish my recipe, would that be bad for the discus.. or is it only bad for humans to eat meat that was frozen twice? If I would have known about your advice spardas I would have just taken the heart asap but I had asked him if he could trim off the excess fat and vains and so on so he had to let it thaw to be able to do this.


gaahhhhh why do things have to be soo complicated for poor alex, I'm such a lost member hahahaha :19: