When I started this hobby I visit aquarium shops frequently. Wherever I go If there by chance an aquarium shop I will visit them. I noticed many fish food available in the aquarium shops with different brands and eye catching labels such Fast Growth, Fast Color and etc. As a beginner I always wonder what actually the ingredients in their food that able to do that. As my experience and knowledge grow I answered my own questions. In actual fact processed food be it in pellet or flake form will never comparable to fresh food in term of promoting fish growth. Imagine those processed food going through how many cycles of processing before they can turn the fresh food into these pellet or flake food. It is like eat canned food and food you buy from market. Absolutely fresh food will yield better result in term of nutrition and taste.
If you feed your fish with fresh meat (protein) and the other one with pellet if can soon notice the different results.
But some of the processed food specially added with coloring ingredients do yields result (of course not in short term) faster than natural ingredients. This may be the breakthrough in the food processing technology . Many natural coloring food will do enhance and maintain the color but in slower pace. Food such as spirulina will have faster result but the price is much more expensive than other natural coloring food.
Beefheart mixed
The staple food I feed my discus is beefheart mixed. I alternate the feeding with bloodworm. The following is the ingredients used in the mixed.
Ingredients Portion
Pork/Beefheart 40%
Pork/Beef Liver 25%
Shrimp 15%
Carrot/Paprika 10%
Tetra Bits/Hikari Spirulina 10%
Multivitamin (Azoo) few drops
Garlic 1 clove
Normally I will alternate the ingredients and not always is the same as above. Some may ask why the above ingredients added and for what pupose. The following will explain.
Purpose
Pork/Beefheart Protein for growth and tissue repair
Pork/Beef Liver Partly protein and vitamin A for coloring and growth
Shrimp natural coloring pigment in shrimp will induce color in discus
Carrot/Paprika betacarotene in these vegetables will enhance the color of discus
Tetra Bits/Hikari Spirulina color enhanced food for coloring
Multivitamin for wellbeing of discus, promote strong immune system in discus and
different vitamin will have different function and benefits to the discus
ranged from promoting growth to proper internal organ functioning.
Garlic natural medicinal value in the garlic will kill intestinal parasites.
Bloodworm
Talking about bloodworm I suggest you buy frozen bloodworm and clean it up first before you feed it to
your discus. Normally I will buy frozen bloodworm from Hong Kong and China. I will put the bloodworm on a sieve and flush it with water. If you intend to try the live bloodworm which is moderately cheap and easily obtained in any aquarium shop in Malaysia I advise to soak it into antibiotic overnight or your discus will very likely to infest with intestinal parasites. Bloodworm does promote fast growth and induce spawning to discus. Some of the breeders use bloodworm as their staple food. Some claimed that feeding bloodworm is not as good as beefheart to produce hi-fin and hi-body in discus but I do noticed discus fed with beefheart do grow bigger and stronger in size.
Feeding
My red turqouise seems very picky on the food which I found out very difficult to feed them until I learnt up them eating behaviour. Feeding discus is really posing some challenge comparing to different cichlid species. They tend to swallow the food and spit out again or they only swallow half and spit out the other half of the food. At the end of the feeding you will realise your tank bottom will cover with very fine food particles.
What I normally do to feed them well (unitl their stomach slightly bloated ) is I put a small chunk of the beefheart mixed and let them finish off first before I put another chunk. It means you prolong the feeding time to let them taking their own sweet time to eat all the food in the tank. Be careful to clean the left over or they will decompose in the tank and quickly the ammonia, nitrite and pathogens will bloom.
If your discus reluctant to eat food you offer to them (especially when you switch to new food for feeding) try to add some appetizer inducing food like bloodworm. From my experience in this hobby I have never encounter any fish that refuse to eat bloodworm. Add more bloodworm to your mix and slowly adjust the proportion until they used to it.
