How do Discus eat?

jmhart

jmhart

Revolutionary
Sep 8, 2007
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Atlanta,GA
I just entered the world of Discus this past Saturday. I picked up three from a guy who is breaking down his tank. I've done all the research, as far a care for a Discus. It's not that much different that what I do for my planted tanks.

The Discus aren't juveniles but they aren't quite full grown either, in the 3-4" range. The food I currently have is Aquadine Gourami/Discus/"Insert Omnivore here" mix. It's a mixture of their flake and spirulina flake. Every fish I've ever had has loved it, gourami's, loaches, rams, you name it. My one complaint is that it all sinks very quickly.

Point is, since I got the discus, I haven't seen them eat. Are the foragers and just pick off the bottom, or do I need to figure out a way to keep the food off the bottom? To vary their diet, I'm going to the store right now and I'm going to pick up some freeze-dried tubiflex and some frozen bloodworms. I want to try a few different things to vary diet, and to find out what they like best.

So, will they pick off the bottom, or do I need to make it float?
 
They are foragers, and will take food off of the bottom, though mine will also go for it as its sinking. The blood worms will definitely coax them into eating, but be sure to keep it varied up with a few other meaty food sources. (krill, beef heart, brine shrimp, etc.)
 
Discus are just as piggy as most fish. The difference is that they tend to be grazers in that they eat all day long at a somewhat liesurely pace. They will take food from the surface, mid water or off the bottom. However, for such a large fish they have a relatively small digestive system. They are best fed several smaller portions throught the course of a day rather than a single big feeding just once. This will help keep the water pristine which they definitely need.

One last thing- they really love live red worms. they will take these from your hand. Unfortunately I have not bothered with this food in some time.

I feed mine a rotation of the following foods: staple flake, spirulina w/ garlic flake, frozen blood worms, frozen mysis shrimp, earthworm flake, Hikari Red Discus, NLS Discus, earthworm sticks, frozen brine shrimp and occasionally frozen beefheart.
 
mine love tubiflex worms
 
Did the guy you got them from refuse to tell you anything about this?
He sounds like a petsmart employee!

You are definatelly getting great advise from the previous posts.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
Discus are just as piggy as most fish. The difference is that they tend to be grazers in that they eat all day long at a somewhat liesurely pace. They will take food from the surface, mid water or off the bottom. However, for such a large fish they have a relatively small digestive system. They are best fed several smaller portions throught the course of a day rather than a single big feeding just once. This will help keep the water pristine which they definitely need.
Click to expand...

:iagree:
 
terror spawnin said:
Did the guy you got them from refuse to tell you anything about this?
He sounds like a petsmart employee!

You are definatelly getting great advise from the previous posts.
Click to expand...


I can't promise he was feeding them well. They are a little thin, and as I understood it, the largest part of their diet was platy babies.

As of now they love freeze-dried bloodworms. I also have tossed in a couple Hikari Cichlid-Gold pellets, which they reluctantly eat, but not with the excitment with which they go after the blood worms. For now, I'm just happy they are eating, even if it is only a few bloodworms every couple of hours. As it turns out, bloodworms are quite popular. I couldn't believe how quickly my clown loaches came out and headed to the surface, it was like I had dumped Krispy Kreme's into a Weight Watchers meeting.


So far, they aren't heading down to the bottom for anything, so it works out that the FD bloodworms and cichlid pellets float.
 
two tanks hit it on the head.

mine will literally headstand and swim upside down looking for food.

they are new so give them time to acclimate.

frozen(thawed) bloodworms are a favorite of my discus.

I do the same and rotate food and feed several small feedings daily.
 
My discus fight for food regularly. They will wait at the top of the tank and eat as it falls then graze till it is gone. They will do this no matter how much i feed them.
 
Night before last I fed mine an extra cube of bloodworms and much to my surprise, they were pretty full by then and couldn't eat much more. But.....every discus in that tank stayed hovered over the gravel where the excesss bloodworms were hoping that the minute their stomachs made room for just one more....they were getting one more down! I left the room and half an hour later....they were still all there in a bunch at the bottom, waiting to get one more worm down! I declare they are like dogs and would eat till they burst!:grinyes:
 
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