how much is too much

[lpiasente]

How many times a day can you feed discus? I have had a few sickies that didn't eat very well for a week and lost a bit of condition. I was wondering if I can up the amount of smaller feeds per day to help fatten them up a little. I realise I will also need to up the water changes.
Cheers
Leanne

[mistakes r crucial]

We used to feed our very young Discus 6 times a day and young adults 4 times. As long as you keep good water up to them the more the merrier if you want to stack the condition on them. Just make sure it's quality food.
Cheers
MAC

[lpiasente]

They are getting dried blackworm, frozen blood worm and shrimp I have a discus pellet mix ,spirulina flakes, viforma. They won't eat the beefheart mix anymore and they used to love it. If I feed 4-6 times a day and do a 30% daily change is that enough? I have pretty good filtration and I am understocked. Thanks

[ILLUSN]

whats your no3? its its below 10 your fine, if its over 20 you need more waterchanges

[mistakes r crucial]

30% daily should be fine providing you're not leaving handfuls of food on the bottom of the tank after each feed. It pays to watch how much they eat within a few minutes so you can get a handle on how much they need, it saves a heap of maintenance time and potential hazards when you get it right.

Personally I wouldn't feed blackworms but there again I haven't bred Discus for 18 months so maybe some procedures have changed that I'm not aware of. Historically they have very often been associated with flukes and other problems so I've always given them a miss.

Take a look at the research on Astaxanthin, a must have for tank bred fish IMO.
Cheers
MAC

[lpiasente]

Thanks Mac, the dried discus food has astaxanthin in it. I remove all un eaten food except I leave in a small amount of the pellets for them to poke around in. Water readings are fine I have been doing 2x50% water changes a day for the last week I was just hoping 1 a day would be fine.
Oh, I thought the dried blackworms were fine.

[mistakes r crucial]

I think you'll find a lot of people will agree they are fine and have not experienced problems with them but others will disagree because they've copped some disease or another. It's a bit like frozen blood worms, I fed my fish with them regularly without issue but others wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. It's all down to personal experience really.
Cheers
MAC