Picky eatin'

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merejiah

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 24, 2007
23
0
31
Minneapolis, MN
So any tips on moving my discus from a steady staple diet of live blackworms with the occasional bit of flake and wattley's discus cubes when I can sucker them into a nibble....

to more of the varied non living foods as a staple and the living as the treat? I can do all the frozen stuff / flake / pellets whatever, but the maitenance needed to sustain the living blackworms in bulk and longterm is inefficient. :cry:
 
Do you feed them out of a bowl? If so you can use that to get them to switch. If you don't feed in a bowl then try to get them to. Once they associate the bowl with food it makes it pretty easy to switch them to different foods. I use an UGF tube to put the food right in the bowl. I feed nothing but New Life Spectrum. Even if you don't use nothing but NLS, I highly suggest that you give it a try at least as part of the diet.
 
How many discus are in the tank? The reason that I ask is because competition for food can get them to eat whatever you throw in the tank. Example: I have a pair that was always fed live foods by the guy I got them from. They would not eat anything else. When I placed them in a 125 gal. with a group of other discus, that behavior changed overnight. They now will eat nearly anything. I was amazed at this quick change. Just something to think about.
 
Actually there are 8 in the tank and they do compete... for the worms! They are juvies at about 4'' each, but they are well trained to eat from a cone feeder...

My issue is that the holes on the cone feeder are not big enough to allow the frozen Wattley's through them and the discus don't even bother TRYING to sample something that is just "floating" in the tank...

I'm thinking of trying a 3-4 day fasting period on them and see if a good bit of old fashioned HUNGER will cause them to be less picky?? Thoughts?

Reptileguy: I'm not sure what you meant by feeding from a BOWL... like a cereal bowl? In the tank? What do you mean by a UGF syringe? Also, is there a website I can visit on this "new life spectrum"? That is your staple diet?
 
Yes, and actual bowl in the bottom of the tank. I used to use a pasta bowl, but now use reptile feeding bowls from Exo-Terra. They are wide and shallow. They work great. All my fish in the 150 know exactly what it is for and come running when the UGF tube goes in the tank. The UGF tube is the riser tube used for under gravel filters (UGF). You can buy these separately. I taped a cheapo funnel from Wal-Mart to the top. Since I use pellets this works for me (may not work for frozen, etc.). I also use cheapo Wal-Mart measuring spoons to put the food in the funnel (easier and consistant amount). I put the food right in the bowl. They all come over and eat out of it (discus, plecos, bichirs, silver dollars, and Synodontis eupterus).

nlpublish.com is the site for New Life Spectrum. Go into the food section. Check out the testimonials, the articles, and the varieties. If you decide to try it, pay attention to size and flaoting vs. sinking. The different varieties are all about the same formula (very little variation from one type to the next) so these are more important than what the name of that certain size is. If they are new I suggest using Thera+A for a while to eliminate possible internal parasites (even if they are not evident). Since the active ingredient is garlic it is not a chemical and cannot be overdosed (without extreme measures). Regardless of other info which questions the effectiveness of garlic, this food works. A few of my discus have turned around because of it.
 
I wanted to say thank you for this info, if I had thought about it a bit more, I could have figured out what UGF meant...LOL

I researched that NLS today and it does look to be a GREAT staple diet, hopefully they take to it right off the bat, any suggestions on how to get them to go to it the first time? I imagine they'll be VERY wary of a "bowl" in their tank at this point. Maybe I should try to "put" some of the blackworms in it for a few days, then switch to the NLS?

At this point, they still aren't touching the Wattley's formula and my tank is getting cloudy because of it... I guess my bi-weekly water changes really do need to be daily eh? If for nothing else, just to keep the water clean! LOL

Anyway, thanks for the info again!
 
What size tank?
What filtration?

Yes, putting the food they are eating in the bowl to start with is best. Does the cone on the cone feeder sink? If so you could put that in the bowl with blackworms in the bowl. They probably already have a strong association with the cone and food.
 
75 gallon tank - Bio-Wheel filtration and a Canister system. Bio wheel is for a 90 gallon tank and Canister is a Magnum H.O.T 250. Filtration should be adequate... actually it looks like an Ammonia Cycle bloom to me... I must have destroyed the beneficial biological bacteria somehow.....

Guess I'll have to keep on my toes and check it daily until it rebounds....
 
Whatever a filter claims it handles, cut that in half. So if you base it on what they claim to handle you should have at least double what your tank actually is (in your case at least 150 gallons of claimed ability). The Biowheels are good, but the cartridges for them are not. Do you have the Emperor 400?

The Magnums are not one of the good canisters in my opinion and experience. Others offer a lot more media and customizability.

If I were putting discus in a 75 I would probably have at least one if not two Fluval 405s and maybe an AquaClear 110. I would also run a really good air pump on there.
 
Emperor 400 yes

Yes I always double up on my filtration... I actually have a Aquaclear 300 sitting idle, think I should pop it on too? I suppose it wouldn't hurt....

I personally like Magnums a LOT more than Fluvals... I'm sorry they've just been more reliable in my opinion. I've used them for the last 16 years with no issues and it keeps my ppm below 150 for a month in my Severum tank (125 gal). BUT, thank you for your thoughts on that, always good to hear another's opinion.

Airpump check, I use a commercial version that I buy at the hydroponics store...I could actually run 3 tanks off it if I wanted to...LOL It's actually amazing how much my Hydroponics and Fish Keeping hobby benefit each other...they go hand in hand really. Fish water makes EXCELLENT organic hydro food. Especially SA Cichlid water, cause if kept appropriately, it's soft and between 5.5-6.5 by the time it's waste water...
 
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