Feeding

The main idea with their diet is to feed different types of food. In the past, most breeders and keepers have made beefheart-based foods a main staple in the Discus' diet. Recently, most have agreed that it can be included as part of the diet, but shouldn't be used as their main/total diet. Flake foods (Wardley's Total Tropical and other "community fish" type foods) and other dried foods such as Tetra Bits have recently become much more widely used. Some keepers offer the main reason to stay away from constantly feeding "beefheart-based" foods is that not only do they increase ammonia levels as uneaten bits decay, but they can cause, if you're not very careful, an environment that may increase the chances of gill flukes and other parasitic disease. Yet others offer the fact that Discus don't have "cow" meat available in their natural environment. "Bulls and cows don't float around in tributaries of the Amazon".

Whatever you choose to feed.... in the morning, turn the light on and let them wake up, swim around and beg for a few minutes before feeding them. At the late evening feeding, don't turn the light off until about an hour after they've eaten, in order to let them finish their foraging activities. This would also help to make sure most food is eaten, rather than contributing to your tank's pollution!

Here's what I've been using.... mixing them up a lot!!

Ocean Nutrition's Whattley Discus Formula... Contains beefheart, krill, clam, beef liver, spinach, wheat germ, spirolina and various vitamins, amino acids and trace elements.

Ocean Nutrition's Formula One...Contains shrimp, clam, krill, mussel, squid, kelp, green algae, red algae, fish roe, lecithin, fish oil, casein, canthanxanthin (for color enhancement) and vitamins, trace elements.

Hikari "Bio-Pure" Frozen Bloodworms...The advantage in this type of bloodworms is they are supposedly sterilized with a 3 step process. The disadvantage in feeding regular bloodworms, tubifex, glass or black worms is they can cause intestinal parasites. Many breeders will attest to this and don't feed worms at all (unless they use Hikari or Earthworms). Package says they contain Bloodworms, water, beta carotene, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate, biotin, choline chloride, folic acid, pantothenic acid, inositol, niacin. I feed them as a treat every couple days and my fish love them! Even picky eaters will take them like they do Diskusin! I believe the hype and have no fear feeding them to my fish. I've been doing so for more than a year with no problems. Evidently others do too, since they still can be difficult for pet stores to keep in stock.

Frozen Shrimp...Any brand is ok. They love these too, but many consider them as not much nutritional value, but good for cleaning and maintaining the fish's digestive tract. Kind of like humans' need to ingest fiber for digestive tract health.

Tetra's "Tetra Bits"...Contains fish meal, wheat germ meal, wheat flour, corn gluten, feeding oat meal, potato protein, dehulled soybean meal, shrimp meal, torula dried yeast, dried whey, cracklings and various vitamins. This is a dry pellet food that you can get most Discus to eat (with some patience mixing it with other foods, if they aren't raised on it) Most except adult fish easily will accept it. If the "bits" seem too large for your small Discus, grind/smash it up a little with a spoon on a flat surface and use it that way. You can even grind it very small and even Discus fry will eat it.

"Diskusin"...New Discus food imported from Germany. Exact ingredients aren't listed, but it's supposed to be made from "First Class Natural Products" without addition of hormones or color enhancers, etc. It comes "freeze dried" in plates about 3" x 6" x 1/4" thick. Each one is $9.00. Most people say their fish love it, mine included! They eat it first time out, no problem. You can break it up and float it or stick chunks to the glass and watch them fight over it. Some say that even fish that have stopped eating or are normally finicky will much improve when it's offered in the tank. I find it to be a little expensive to use every day, but I do use it as a "treat" every couple days. It is a good alternative to use in an automatic feeder for those times when you must be away. Not many Discus foods can be used in an auto-feeder, for obvious reasons. It's available from Monolith Marine Monsters.

Wardley's "Total Tropical"... (Community flake food)

I alternate these types of food at different times of day. Usually I feed Ocean Nutrition's Formula One in the morning. Late afternoon I feed Whattley's Discus Formula. Late evening I alternate frozen shrimp, Tetra-Bits, Discusin, Hikari blood worms or Wardley's Total Tropical. Many times I feed them a combination of the formentioned products at night. In other words, some blood worms and some Total Tropical or.... some Discusin and a few Tetra Bits or some shrimp. The idea is to get them all used to eating many different types of foods. Currently, I have over 20 Discus and most will take all the foods. Picky or new fish that don't eat will usually come around with the Hikari Blood Worms and/or the Diskusin. If a fish won't eat either of those foods after a few introductions, I would think they're sick! (If they've been in the tank for more than a month and not eating). Be very patient with new fish, especially if they're medium to adult size!

The Ocean Nutrition "Formula One" is made for saltwater fish, but I had a breeder tell me he uses it frequently. Within a week of starting to feed it, my Discus' colors started to become much more vivid. I've been told it's the ingredient called canthanxanthin. It's not beefheart based and contains lots of good natural stuff for them, so also a very good choice, if you can get yours to eat it. I've had no problem getting them to take it at least once a day.

Other types of pellet and flake foods I've heard breeders and other Discus keepers are using successfully include... Nippon Nutri-bits, Hikari Cichlid Pellets, OSI Cichlid ViviColor, Hai-Feng Pellets, Vibra-Gro. Presently, I don't have access to any of these, but hear they are all very good foods. If you can get any, definitely try them!

Most of the frozen foods are sold in flat slabs or in pre-measured square pieces. I avoid the pre-cut ones, since many times they aren't the right size for your tank or number of fish. If you buy the flat slabs, let them slightly thaw, then cut them to the size you find you need and refreeze. It seems to work out better in most cases.

It's great fun, but more time consuming, to hold the frozen chunks (I cut them about 3/4" square), while rubbing it with your fingers, in the tank and let them eat from your hand. I've never had any problems with them from doing this, but it's been said that Discus could possibly suffer from eating "frozen" food directly, since the temperature of the food, when they eat it, could be more than 25 degrees colder than their stomach is. This theory hasn't been proven and I'm sure most of us do it without problems.

If you're in a hurry, throw it in a small bowl (TupperWare type container) with some tank water and let it thaw/dissolve (while you're in the shower, watching TV, working or whatever) and then pour it in the tank. This is the method I use most often. It's probably the safest and easiest method to use on a regular basis.

Be aware that while this type of frozen food feeding is good for their growth and nutrition, overfeeding contributes to the ammonia level of the water as it decomposes. Try to keep an eye on how much remains on the bottom after they do their foraging around for a couple hours. If there is a lot left, you're feeding them too much.

I've listed what I use only as a guide for you. You may not be able to get these items, or you may have good luck with other foods. I've constructed my food regiment from different breeders, books and Internet sources (as well as what's available in my area). Also, don't ever let frozen food totally thaw, then refreeze it. If you forget and leave it out to totally thaw, throw it away. You wouldn't want to eat food that was thawed, then refrozen. Nor should you feed it to your Discus.

Most of the foods I've referred to are available through pet stores. If they don't have it in stock, they usually are glad to order it in for you.

I live in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio - USA. Here, I only have about 4 or 5 Pet local pet store sources for frozen foods. If I can get all of the above-mentioned products here, most of you should be able to acquire at least some of them! Sometimes it takes awhile to get these foods, but most are eventually available. So, once you find a source, don't wait too long before ordering more!! In other words, once you find a connection....do your best to keep it and order well before you need it!

Get as many different types as you can and try them with your Discus! If you vary their diet, they should do very well.

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