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  1. #1
    Eternal Moderator Merrilyn's Avatar
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    Merrilyn's beef heart recipe.

    This is my own beef heart mix, refined over many years of breeding and raising discus. I find this one to be the best for colour and growth of fry, and for conditioning breeding pairs.

    I have an electric mincer, so it makes life easy, but you could also use a hand mincer or a food processor. All the ingredients come from the supermarket or the health food shop, and are readily available. This makes a large amount, so you may like to halve the quantities.

    2kg beefheart, thoroughly trimmed of any fat and sinew

    1kg Shrimp, the small orangey red ones

    1kg green prawns, shelled and de veined

    1kg of any white ocean fish fillets (don't use fresh water fish)

    1kg Salmon (yes I know, but your fish are worth it)

    1 cup frozen green peas

    1 cup cooked carrot

    1 heaped tablespoon of Spirulina powder for every 2kg of mixture

    half a cup of minced garlic

    A cup of good quality flake food, to bind it all together. (I use Breeder's blend flake)


    All this goes thru the mincer twice, so it is all thoroughly mixed together.

    It then goes into a big bowl, where I mix by hand (wearing gloves, or you'll have green hands) for about ten minutes.

    At this point you can add fish vitamins or any other additives you may like. I like to add NaturRose (astaxanthin) and Pro More, but the choice is yours.

    A good spoonfull of mixture goes into each zip lock bag, flatten them with a rolling pin or by hand, and lay on a tray to freeze flat.



    I feed this twice a day to all adults, three times a day to juveniles, along with tetra bits and blood worms and mysis shrimp. Little and often is the secret with feeding discus. Their stomach is only as big as their eye, so fill it often and you will have terrific growth rate.
    Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P

    Merrilyn has passed, but will not be forgotten - Goodbye dear friend

  2. #2
    SnakeSkin Discus
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    Merrilyn,

    If u dont mind me askin around how much does this all cost...and how long does it last??

    Thanks

    Sam

  3. #3
    Eternal Moderator Merrilyn's Avatar
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    Gee Sam, I've never really stopped to work it out.

    I have a lot of fish, but that seems to last me a long time.

    I guess if you say, that each adult discus eats about half a teaspoon of that mixture a day, it works out cheaper than dry food. LOL

    But I figure, my fish are worth it
    Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P

    Merrilyn has passed, but will not be forgotten - Goodbye dear friend

  4. #4
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Hello!

    Just wondering but...

    Do you cook the beefheart beforehand? Or is everythng just raw except the carrots?

    Can discus eat cooked beefheart?? How come the carrots get cooked but not the peas...

    Thnx

  5. #5
    Moderator Ben's Avatar
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    Hi Shobert,
    Welcome to the forum!

    The beef heart is minced uncooked, as cooking will toughing the meat fibres.

    Cooking the carrots makes it easier for the fish to digest. Whilst with the frozen pea's, freezing helps break down the pea structure making it easier to digest aswell.

    HTH

    Ben

  6. #6
    Wrigglers
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    Just a quick note to offer a bit of support for this food. A while ago i made a batch of this, and a batch of the Seafood Mix in the other sticky. The discus never really took to the seafood mix, but as it cost a significant sum of money to make, i'll continue to try and sneak it in untill it's gone.

    This mix however, the discus took to immediately and feverishly. They love it! The growth in some of the fish is quite impressive.

    Apart from the fact that it smells pretty average, i'll openly say this would have to be one of if not the, best food(s) getting around.
    OSCAR

  7. #7
    Hi, I'm New Here! CKT's Avatar
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    it is also tasty for human if u cook it ...
    From Hong Kong studing university in Sydney.

    Acquarium experiences since in primary school, recently years i addict to discus. However, I dont know too much the discus phenomenon in Australia.

    (the pic is my Sky High Blue in HK)

  8. #8
    Medium Discus
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    Dec 2004
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    epping nsw
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    Re: Ladyred's beef heart recipe.

    Quote Originally Posted by ladyred
    This is my own beef heart mix, refined over many years of breeding and raising discus. I find this one to be the best for colour and growth of fry, and for conditioning breeding pairs.


    Gelatine dissolved in boiling water, to bind it all together

    Merrilyn.....i am about to have a go......any updates to this??????
    1. fresh salmon fillets and deep sea salmon i guess?
    2.how much gelatine do you use?
    3 beefheart from butcher as a whole or shop shelf? weights would differ a lot.
    .....thanks ....Jim
    .....Keep fit guys....get the bicycle out.....Jim

    have fun and be nice to each other

  9. #9
    Eternal Moderator Merrilyn's Avatar
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    Hello Jim, the 2kg of beefheat is the weight after removing all the waste. You can skip the salmon if you really want to, but I find it makes the mixture much more palatable, and because salmon feed on deep sea krill, which have in turn been feeding on plankton, it's gotta be good for them.

    Must confess I'm getting a bit lazy lately, and have dropped out the gelatine, other than that, it's still the same.

    Hope your fish enjoy it.
    Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P

    Merrilyn has passed, but will not be forgotten - Goodbye dear friend

  10. #10
    Free Swimmer
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    Nov 2005
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    Adelaide, Sth. Australia
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    Interesting that this recipe, and some of the others contain a bit of garlic. Is there a reason apart from aroma ???...........garlic has often been used to ward off internal worms { and the occassional vampire }so I'm guessing this may have the same desired effect on fish ???
    NAME : Phil
    OCCUPATION : Water changer

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