Discus Food

**hoss** · 07-11-2012, 12:48 AM

Not sure if this had been brought up but I was wondering if someone had the name of a good pellet food for Discus?

**Fishguy2727** · 07-11-2012, 01:11 AM

New Life Spectrum exclusively. I would do their Thera+A formula because it has enough garlic to kill some parasites, something that is very useful with discus.

**hoss** · 07-11-2012, 02:22 AM

thanks!just in time too I was just about to leave pet store.

**Cermet** · 07-11-2012, 12:11 PM

Discus do best with a number of foods but pellets should be the staple - also consider Hikari Bio-Gold pellets (floats and sinks) as well as their sterilized frozen blood worms (they are also vitamin fortified.) Brine shrimp for adults and freshly hatched ones that have been fed a high value food is excellent for fry.

**Ashurbarnipal** · 07-17-2012, 04:35 PM

Really, pellets should be the staple? What about frozen, like San Francisco Bay?

**hoss** · 07-17-2012, 05:31 PM

I wish my discus would eat pellets...I feed only bloodworms for one reason that is all they will eat...I have tried the stand off where I feed pellets and they just stare at me...and eventually I give in and vacuum out and drop some thawed bloodworms and they go crazy for it. They are kinda like kids I guess .. if you raise them the wrong way you can never fix them... I'll keep trying different food. On the plus side I have never had any diseases or any negative affects of feeding solely bloodworms. Thanks for all the advice.

**Cliff** · 07-17-2012, 05:34 PM

Have you tried soaking the pellets in some garlic food additives ?

That worked well for me switching some of my live caught fish (not discus) to pellet foods.

It might be worth a try

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-17-2012, 05:35 PM

That's because you have spoiled them with the good stuff. They should not be fed blood worms constantly. Those are a treat, not a staple.

**Ashurbarnipal** · 07-17-2012, 08:50 PM

I usually feed all my tanks nothing but a good mix of frozen food. When I do try to feed pellets, they don't care for them. I was thinking of starting a discus tank, and now this thread actually has me curious on the issue

**Cermet** · 07-18-2012, 01:20 PM

Blood worms alone are low in some 'B' vitamins. Also, unless sterilized, they often carry parasites and other ills (for healthy fish, this will not generally cause problems - fry may be another issue.) Hikari sells vitamin fortified and sterilized frozen bloodworms (not cheap) and I will use these at times.

Discus, just like people, prefer food they are raised on. If they see only live worms, they will want only that. If they would strave before eating pellets, not a lot you can do - however, most discus keepers I know/read use pellets as a staple and all other foods as a treat.

Finally, most people tend to want to use as low a cost food as possible while maintaining high quality - most discus pellets satisfy that need. If you have extra money and want to feed discus only with high end stuff, that is good. But the average person will use pellets as a staple. No real issue here but I provide information/adviced based for the average discus keeper.