Brine Shrimp Addicts!

[Shawnts106]

ok, My two juvies are addicted to brine shrimp.. they will not eat very much tetra flakes, they wont TOUCH any pellets and they only will sometimes eat mosquitto larvae!... I have NOT tried beef heart, but is it ok if they do just eat mosquitto larvae... or should I be worried.. Im just going to continue trying to introduce different foods for them to choose from! maybe they will get brave one day! LOL

[kalebjarrod]

you should be trying to vary there diet as soon as possible,

try bloodworms and not feeding them anything else for a few days

eventually they will try somthing :wink:

[Shawnts106]

I worry they will starve!!!

[DR.V]

I worry they will starve!!!

Thats the point. You should try and starve them and feed them with the food that you want them to eat. Some fish are picky about the food, and one of the way for them to eat other type of food is by starving them.

If you starve them for about 3-4 days, it wont harm the fish. It will just make them really hungry and eat whatever you put into the tank.

[Andrew Soh]

:D Hello Shawnts,
It is a good start to feed them artemia and you are fortunate to have easy access to such. You must continue till you are very sure that they are so deperately in need of food that you starve them for a day or two before introducing them with new feed(totally stop feeding them artemia)...

If they are still reluctant to prick onthe new introduction, siphon it out and try again later. In normal cases and by the fourth day...they will eat.

Beefheart, pallet or dry processed feed or artemia are basically free from freshwater aquatic organisms or pathogen. I am, as I have expressed in my book, very much against freshwater aquatic animals like bloodworm and tubiflex whether live or frozen. The only one possible freshwater aquatic animal that you can feed is live(not frozen) mosquito larve. But that can only be used after you have soaked them in salt water above 30ppt (300gm to 10liter water) for 24 hours. mosquito larve can survive in high salinity but the pathogens they carry will drop and die within the 24 hours.

In a major breeding facility, feeding tubiflex and bloodworm is a risk. Every now and then, when there is a change in either temperature or water condition, though minor to us, may favour certain parasite proliferation...leading to an epidemic.

If a breeder cleanses his incoming discus thoroughly to rid of both ecto-and endo-parasites and have a good habit to do prophylactic treatments to their hatchery once every 4 to 6 months and feeding only animal meal, dry processed feed and artemia.....his hatchery will be one that is not affected by the yearly epidemic experienced by other breeders....and another important reward.... exporting his discus will generally see no complain of health for the importers.

Just a thought!!! :coffee

Regards,
Andrew :angel

[jwight]

The main reason to change your feeding habit is frozen brine shrimp has next to no nutritional value. I feed mysis shrimp occasionally as it had protein in as well as beef heart, blood worm, pellets.

It is best ot get discus even after breeding off brine shrimp as soon as possible as its not nutritional and may stunt their growth.

[Shawnts106]

this is Spirlulina Enriched Brine...

Brine has to have Protein in it... and then its enriched...

I was told my discus are too young for beefheart... is this true?

[Andrew Soh]

Hi,

Try feeding artemia and Daphnia or moinas to your discus fry and see how they grow.

My company done a S$120,000.00 project on artemia nutritional vlaue as compared to other live feed like blood worms, tubiflex..etc and the project also encompasses the growing of artemia to adult size in commercial scale.

Through this, we have found that tubiflex gives the best result. the second is artemia......and the rest as ....... worse of all is moinas...a tropical cousin of daphnia (we don't have daphnia in Singapore).

B u t if the artemia is enriched with Hufa or other nutrition.....it is the best and growth rate is accelerated. Though tubiflex can give as good a result...it is a carrier of many pathogens......believe me......

Just do me a favour....if you have two batches of newly free swimming discus fry.....feed one tank solely on artemia nauplii and the other tank solely on daphnia or moina......see which tank of fry grow faster.

Just a Thought!
Andrew :angel

[Shawnts106]

Interesting... Mine arent fry, I do have fry Yellow Tail Damsels in my saltwater tank right now swimming around... GUESS THEY SURVIVED!

but anyway... This is interesting!

[jwight]

I knew they were not fry. I have read your other topics. Frozen Brine Shrimp is good for digestion but not for other things. Live brine shrimp is another matter but solely live food is also not good. A varied diet is essential. If you bought your discus from a shop more than likely they were fed on beef heart as it provides quick growth (always good to ask what they fed it an even better see them eat it). They are not too young.

[Shawnts106]

I got my discus from my LFS that I work at... we feed our Blood worms, Brine and flakes... sometimes Beefheart... I suppose mine are NOT to young to feed beefheart????