# My Discus not eating flakes



## Sapphire (May 26, 2010)

FYI, I bought 3 discus from emile.

one of them eats the TetraColor Tropical Crisp that i feed them. The other two don't eat it at all.

I have to feed the other two with blood worm and blind shrimps, but that would be too much protein.

To discus keepers, what do you feed your discus with? and where do you get them? 

I went to IPU yesterday, they sell a 4oz TetraColor Granules for $30, 

I want to find some cheaper alternatives.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

I had one that started off eating tetra bit only and won't touch blood word. Weird.

Eventually it ate everything - some will take weeks.

Magicbug wa seeling beef heart for $15/Lb. It was a big hit.

I bought a 10oz Colour Bit from King Ed for aroudn $25. Probably on sale on Boxing Day. I thing you must be reading the wrong tag at IPU.

Mello told me he train his discus to eat certain food by feeding the same for a week. If they are hungry enough, I think they will eat anything.


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## kelly528 (Apr 21, 2010)

Smart fish. Flakes are becoming less popular among fishkeepers due to their tendency to swell with water and bloat fish. I recommend a high-quality sinking granule formulated for discus, maybe New Life Spectrum or Hikari. They may seem pricey but how often do you go through a bag of fish food... maybe once or twice a year? High-quality feeds also contain less binding agents like wheat germ and flour, which are nutritionally useless to fish. Which means that they have to eat less pelleted food to get the same nutritional value of flakes. Which saves $$$ (I have worked it out... pet-store brand flakes actually cost MORE per gram than high-quality pellets, on the whole).


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

You will find NLS discus pellets at Roger's. Why not try April's, she is close to you and she know her discus very well.


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## Sapphire (May 26, 2010)

Thanks guys all your inputs, I think I will get try Roger's and April's. Will definitely look at the New Life Spectrum or Hikari.

Oh, I saw MagicBug's beef heart sale, I didn't know it was for Discus??


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

If you want good growth yea the beefheart grows them best .there are some
Food flakes
But not as a steady diet


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

For 3 discus, it's not worth making your own beefheart. If someone else is willing to make it for you, I'd jump on it!

I like the Ocean Nutrition Frozen Formula 1 and 2 cubes, added algae and other green stuff. Most of my discus are still eating NLS, but a few never have. PE Mysis, my gelfood I make for goldfish.

What were they feeding on before? I find discus takes awhile to come around to new food and if they see their tankmates start eating it, they're more likely to do the same. If you have room for a few more discus, some healthy competition for food is always good appetite inducer.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

I just feed them blood worms. You can get blood worm sheets for cheaper. I got two sheets from April a few months ago and I still have 1/2 of it left


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

As told to me by the other members here, discus do take some time to get used to their new home.Eventually you will try a few diffferent foods, and they will let you know what works for them.Bloodworms do work almost all the time, but try adding some other stuff at the same time when their munching on this.Did this with my wilds when they held their "mini hunger strike", and they took in other stuff as well.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Keep the water changes up for optimum health then they should have a good appetite. Three discus together they are usually a bit shier.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Hey April you fogot to mention the temperature thing. I took your advise to raise it to 85-86 F. They eat anything. flakes, pellet, blood worm, beef heart, like a bunch of little piranhas.


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## Sapphire (May 26, 2010)

Paul used to feed them with TetraColor Granules in his tank.

Hi April, I have a 33g planted. I am thinking getting three more discus. But 33g would be a little to small for 6? I already have 2 angels. 5 fish already. 

I might need to upgrade to a 66g? I heard about the PeterChow ratio? 10 gallon per discus?

MadgicBug is nice enough to offer me some of his beefheart stock. I guess I will get a pound to try out. But as stated in his thread, it might be hard for me to get my discus to eat the bf mixture in my planted tank and two of them only eat bloodworms. hmm..

thx for the tips gklaw, yeah I already bumped my tank up to 29 degree celcius on the 1st day.


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## Sapphire (May 26, 2010)

Luke78 said:


> As told to me by the other members here, discus do take some time to get used to their new home.Eventually you will try a few diffferent foods, and they will let you know what works for them.Bloodworms do work almost all the time, but try adding some other stuff at the same time when their munching on this.Did this with my wilds when they held their "mini hunger strike", and they took in other stuff as well.


hey buddy, i would love to come over to see your tank sometimes.


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## seanyuki (Apr 22, 2010)

the 10 gallons rule per discus is ideal with adults discus(7-8 ins)......I have kept over 10 discus in a 70 gallons tank with no problems......imo Tetra Bits are like candy for discus and they get bloated easily....those Ocean Nutrition flakes/pellets are worth getting.....raise the temperature to 90-91 Fahrenheit to increase their metabolism.

just my 2 cents

Ocean Nutrition Flake & Pellet Foods


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## Holyarmor (Apr 29, 2010)

Sapphire said:


> Paul used to feed them with TetraColor Granules in his tank.
> 
> Hi April, I have a 33g planted. I am thinking getting three more discus. But 33g would be a little to small for 6? I already have 2 angels. 5 fish already.
> 
> ...


PeterChow's ratio is 2 gallons per discus, for experienced discus keepers only.
Your 33G can easily handle 6 to 8 discus, given clean water + strong filtration.
Just my two cents !!!!!


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## Discus (Apr 23, 2010)

Blood worms is what I feed my discus. Thats what I beleive they truly like the most. Now I did infact have a discus at one point that would not eat blood worms but did not get the right food in time. These guys are real picky sometimes. So I would suggest if your building your collection to have all the food listed above and then get them on to blood worms.


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