How to get your discus to eat???

[axl]

Hi,
my new discus went in on Tuesday and they were feed beef heart previously. They are still no eating yet i have tried color bits, cichlid stick, flakes and i tried beef heart last night with no luck. 1 of the discus had a pick at the beef heart for a while but that was it. Do I keep offering them beef heart??? or mix up what i give them??. Also how many times would you try and get them to eat??? I know it can take them a while sometimes to eat and getting use to the tank.


Cheers Axl

[ILLUSN]

They should be settled by now generally to settle them faster leave the lights off for a day then offer food if they won't eat try some live brine shrimp or a little garlic juice mixed into some dry food. What you feed is up to you neefheart is best nut it's messy. You'll have to vac your substrate after each fed or atleast once a day

[goodoo]

Starve them.

[axl]

are you serious you reckon this could work. Couldn't you run the risk of them dying with lack of food. There hardly eating at the moment. Surely someone has got some suggestions.

ph 7.5
nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Temp 29
Nitrate 0

the water is perfect and im doing 50% wc every 3 days.

[BigDaddyAdo]

They will not starve themselves to death. I have had fish that didnt eat for 2 weeks when first brought home. Then it took me months to get one particular fish to eat properly. She would only eat freeze dried black worms from my hand.

[goodoo]

yeah its a head *&%+ . Its allways hard to get a fussy discus settled. I just bought 2 from Rod Lewis. I have had them 2 weeks, the turq will eat anything, The other will not eat dryfood. Anything gourmet he will eat it. Battle of wills, you will win eventually.

[Merrilyn]

Axl I wonder if something in the tank has put a taste or odour in the water, and that is putting the fish off their food.

I'd suggest you start doing daily 50% water changes for the next week or so, just in case.

The fish should be eating by now, so just keep offering them their favourite food, little and often.

[goodoo]

If your worried feed them frozen brineshrimp. but they might refuse to eat anything else. And if they wont eat live brineshrimp then they are sick. No fish can refuse live brineshrimp.

[BigDaddyAdo]

If your worried feed them frozen brineshrimp. but they might refuse to eat anything else. And if they wont eat live brineshrimp then they are sick. No fish can refuse live brineshrimp.

Even i have trouble sometimes. :)

Seriously though, only a very sick fish can resist live BS or Black Worms IMO.

[axl]

i live in a country town and don't have access to live brine shrimp. Some of the fish are picking at the beef heart. I tried dried black worms today and 1 of the red turq loved them couldn't get enough of them. There slowly starting to like the beef heart i think. Im doing 50% wc daily as well

Cheers Axl

[goodoo]

hang in there . frozen shrimp are still great. I can allways get my discus to eat. But sometimes it takes months to get them to really like dry food.

[axl]

Good news they have nearly all started to eat those dried black worms they really started going hard for them. This is the first time they have been at the top of the tank all together going for food. I have got some spectrum discus coming in the mail so i will try and get them onto that as well. I'm a lot more happier seen them eat finally.

[Merrilyn]

That's great news Tim. Mal's Freeze Dried Blackworms are the bee's knees when it comes to discus food.

It's much cheaper if you order direct from the forum, and he always posts within 48 hours.

[axl]

They loved them and yeah i purchased them straight of the website. Are they good in protein etc and do the discus do well on them??? They don't look like they have much guts to them.

[Merrilyn]

Very high in protein Tim and great for fattening up skinny fish.

As with all good food, make it PART of a varied diet, so keep offering your beefheart and dry pellets.

[goodoo]

good luck getting them to eat spectrum, thats allways the hardest part for me.

[axl]

I have got 1 discus that i haven't seen eat yet since i purchased him. He is the biggest fish in the tank and all the fish go crazy over the frozen dried black worms but he doesn't any show any interest at all. He is a red snakeskin and is a beautiful fish, i feed them flakes, beef heart, discus spectrum and frozen dried black worms. Any suggestions on what to do???

[boxters]

Leave it. When he gets hungry he will eat. Discus can go without food for 6 weeks and sometimes longer. If it has not started wasting away and is still in good condition it is probably foraging around the tank picking at left overs.