how to train discus to eat dry food ?

[a-hua]

hi

are there any useful and practice ways to train discus which used to eat only frozen food ( red worm mainly ), to eat commerce dry grain/flake food ?

i kept only 5 blue 2-3cm discus in a 50L EI tank for 6 months.feeding them frozen food daily. now they grow to 8-10cm, and i move them to a 270L EI tank with some little fishes.

various foods are good for discus and fish, but every time i give dry train food, the discus just do not eat anymore.....

what can i do ?

 

[Tom Barr]

Starve them till they do. Many will not having been raised on worms, and will starve themselves to death.

You might try other frozen foods, like Mysis and Brine.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Tom Barr]

Also, feed the right before the lights come on.
Never late in the day.

They should have a better appetite then.
Note: this applies to CO2 planted tanks only.



Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[a-hua]

thanks~~

Starve them till they do. Many will not having been raised on worms, and will starve themselves to death.

so i will feed discus dry food one time per day (and may lose some of them in the future??... )

You might try other frozen foods, like Mysis and Brine..

the stores here do not sell mysis.
i gave them brine sometimes.

 

[a-hua]

They should have a better appetite then.
Note: this applies to CO2 planted tanks only.

why *only*?
what is the different between bare tank and co2 planted tank for the time of appetite?

 

[Tom Barr]

They eat more when there's no CO2.
They turn dark if there's not enough O2 and/or too much CO2.

In a good filter, good water changes, good current, good plant care, they should be able to tolerant up to 45ppm of CO2 or so at 82F.

If you do not do water changes often, poor current, if the plants are less than optimal, way too many fish in a small tank(bad stocking), then these levels might be less.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[shoggoth43]

Depends on how you do it. Feed the flake first thing in the morning when they're hungriest. You can then feed other foods later on. If you're going to feed live food, you may want to make that the last meal of the day so they don't expect just the live food. Sometimes it helps to have "dither" fish in there as well which will eat the flake and help the discus take the hint that the flake is actually food.

-
S

 

[Philosophos]

While I don't do discus (yet), I do keep apistos. Some of them get very picky. So far the best bet is to starve them out for three days, do a water change, then offer freeze dried cyclops. Cyclops is probably too small for discus to care about, but try running through other freeze dried foods.

From there, move to a good quality flake/pellet food. In fish keeping and fishing, I've found a bit of garlic always helps the bite. New Life Spectrum has been my food of choice as of late for this reason, and others. Not sure if they make a discus-specific product.

-Philosophos

 

[Panda]

Spectrum makes food for discus. In my opinion is too small for discus above 4 inches. I prefer giving them tetra color granules in the morning, after work I offer them beefheart :
New! Beefheart Plus Tropical Flake

at night frozen bloodworms. I know it sounds like a lot of food !

 

[a-hua]

thanks for your opinions~~

it has been 3 days long the discus did not eat dry grain food at all.
i fed(grain) 2 times a day and just saw the other fish eat,
should i go on ???

here are some infos and pics,
any advice??

8 days old planted discus auqarium
tank---270L 120*45*60cm
sub----4cm soil+2cm river sand (i want to change to non-co2 tank in the future...)
light----117w (diy reflect + t8 39w philios 865*3)
tem----30-32 degree C
filter---5L diy canister plus power head
wc---- 70% per week
co2---about 3-5 bubbles(not sure) /sec 1 reacter +1 reacter plus power heard
Fert---- EI
kno3-----1/2 tsp
k2hpo4--1/4 tsp
edta fe na--1/8 tsp
trace --------4cc
fish---5 discus +35 ** fish

tank

discus

sub
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01451.jpg

filter(700L/hr) and reacter plus power head(1200L/hr)
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01443.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01444.jpg

the other reacter
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01445.jpg

current
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01452.jpg

pics of plant
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01446.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01447.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01448.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd125/a-hua/DSC01449.jpg

 

[Philosophos]

You've only had the discus 8 days? Feed them live and frozen if you can. Some discus won't eat anything for a while after being moved, purely because of the stress. I've heard of more than one case of starvation from moving then forcing flake. Also, don't worry about 3 days of not eating in the future. In a well planted tank, I've left my fish for 5 days between feedings with no problems; usually it's the plants that suffer more.

-Philosophos

 

[a-hua]

no~~
i have kept the 5 discus for 6 months in another 50L EI planted tank.
during the period, I feed them frozen food 2-6 x a day and do 70% water change 2 x a week. discus and plant looks good.

about 9 days ago, i set a new 270L EI planted tank and moved the discus in.
i gave fronze red worm on the first 5 days , and all the fish including discus ate normally without stress...

for the convenience in the future, i decide to train the discus to eat dry food.
i feed only dry food 2 x a day but do not see they eat until now!!

maybe 10-15 days is the limit i can wait...
i want my discus live and eat dry food!!!!!!!
help~~~