Discus Eating

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macman7010

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
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833
Location
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I just added 3 Discus to my 80 gallon freshwater tank

2 Pigeon Blood and 1 Blue Diamond

the only issue I am having is getting them to eat, they are very shy and the only the Blue Diamond accepts food.

In with them are a shoal of rummy nose tetras.

I have been trying New Life Spectrum Threa A and Cichlid Formuala, I would get the Discus formula but it is the exact same formula ingredients as the others.

water parameters are

ph - 7.0 neutral
temp 84
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate .5 ppm

any ideas. Also would live brine shrimp be an acceptable food for discus. I culture these for my reef tank, so they are readily avaliable.
 
How large are the discus? Are the two that aren't eating being bullied by the one that is?

Yes, discus can be very shy and it sometimes takes them days to fully acclimate. One possible issue (believe it or not), is too few discus in too large a tank. Especially if they just came from a smaller tank with lots of discus for company. I wouldn't worry about this just yet as discus will go on hunger strikes for no apparent reason, and then just as quickly start eating voraciously again.

Live adult brine shrimp would be an excellent source of roughage for discus, but not much on the protein scale. My discus get a regular diet of live CA black worms, frozen blood worms, tetra color bits, and frozen spinach for roughage.

You might want to try feeding in two corners of the tank. The pidgeon bloods might be intimidated by the blue diamond. I'd also raise the temp to 85 or 86. That can be enough to kick start a discus appetite. If they don't accept food after 3 days, I'd exchange them for other discus, or perhaps try adding more.

Good luck and keep us posted. :D
 
sounds good. I know seachem makes a product called entice I was considering. I have never fed black worms and am cautious considering the fear of parasites, although I hear blackworms are rather parasite free. The blue diamond is a little smaller than the pigeon bloods. I wanted a whole shoal of discus, since I kept them years ago and was able to spawn and raise them successfully. I fed beefheart then and dont want to harken back to that considering the mess it made of the water, and the nitrate levels.

The area where I got them has lost some of its Discus trade to the Tsunami, though as soon as I spot some nice looking disks Ill snatch them up. These 3 are near adulthood 2-4 inches round. Not huge, but larger than many of the silver dollar sized juvenlies you see for sale.
 
oh by the way I checked your gallary, beautiful tanks and fish
 
:D Thanks. Beefheart has its' place but not in any of my tanks either.

I'm sure you'll do just fine with your discus.
 
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