Feeding discus fish - TIPS

From the many sorts of food available most seem to agree that frozen foods are the best.  Discus fish can be fussy eaters and its a good indicator that all is well if they are feeding enthusiastically. Most frozen foods are either a beefheart or mussel mix.  Both seem to be taken well in the aquarium.  Juveniles need more regular feeding than adults to get maximum growth.  But it seems whenever you're near the tank they will think its feeding time.  Remember the more you feed the dirtier the water will become.

TOP TIP - Do not over feed.  Try and ensure that all food is eaten and the smaller left overs are removed by any clean up fish that you have.  You can always put more in but its difficult to get uneaten food out.

TOP TIP 2 - Feed in sections, put food in one area and then a little bit more in another.  Make sure all of your fish including the shy ones get a chance to get to the food.

TOP TIP 3 - Be very careful with Beefheart and some other frozen foods.  You are putting raw meet in warm water, it will quickly go off, foul the water and poison fish if there are areas in the aquarium that food can get stuck, hidden and uneaten.

TOP TIP 4 - Pause your filters and pumps to ensure food doesnt get pulled into the filters. Dont forget to restart them of course.

Food left overs can be a problem.  I have seen Whirling caused by uneaten mussel mix food going off and then being eaten.  This seems to poison the fish and it never ends well.  If caught early you can stop all feeding for a week and the fish may recover.  For this reason I switched to beefheart and havent seen the issue since.

Some of the newer dried foods seem to be popular with Discus, they are high in protein and some fish take them well but not all.  They can be picky so vary your foods and make sure they have a selection.

There is some evidence that feeding just Beefheart can lead to issues.  So its always a good idea to vary the food and makes sure a variety is taken.

Freeze Dried Black Worm - This is very popular and disappears super quick.  This is a nice addition or treat but I only feed it once or twice per week, very popular and packed with protein.

White Worm - White worms are an excellent food for discus fish, they are easy to culture and make the perfect live food that these discus will enthusiastically devour.  I recommend getting a White Worm culture and youll have an endless supply of excellent food for your fish.

How to culture White Worms

Bloodworm - Many opinion on this, they will eat it and appear to like it but there is minimal nutritional value and the short digestive tract of the Discus means the worm casing cannot be digested.  That and the fact that they can have parasites I avoid this food.  If youre going to feed them make sure to use a quality, parasite free frozen type.

Granules - Some people say not to feed "Dry" foods to Discus but some products seem very good and the fish seem to do well on it.  Buy the best you can find and soaking the food is a good idea before adding it to the tank.  Watch out for added colours, you can quickly turn a yellow discus fish orange or red by feeding the wrong foods and this will not reverse.

TOP TIP 5 - Watch out for added colourings.  If you have yellow or white Discus and feed them too much food with colouring they will go reddish in colour which you may not like.