Discus Won't Eat His Veggies

Picklee

Hi Everyone,

My Discus (three of them) refuse to eat the beefheart or Discus formula that I give them. They only eat the bloodworms. I've tried to give them the beefheart and the formula since I've had them (about two weeks) and it was the first thing that I tried feeding them.

I've since introduced live bloodworms into their diet. They eat those like candy, as I would have suspected. I've tried thawing pieces of the beefheart and mixing it with the live bloodworms. (I feed them out of a worm feeder cone. Much simpler and keeps the worms from burying themselves in my planted tank.) They will actually pick at it (spitting out the beefheart of course) to get to the live bloodworms.

Newly introducing the live bloodworms was probably a mistake, especially at their age. But they wouldn't eat their veggies even before the bloodworms.

Any suggestions?

Lupin

Discus tend to be very fussy with their foods. But they should eventually eat the food.

Picklee

Should I just feed the beef heart and the formula then and stop feeding live blood worms?

Picklee

Hm. Well, as fate would have it, they called me a liar. I fed them live blood worms this morning mixed with a little beef heart in the cone, but this evening I only fed them beef heart and the formula, dumped it in, and they scavenged around for it and ate it! :P

I think they didn't eat it this morning because it was in the cone feeder, and they are primarily scavengers. I noticed they don't care much for the larger pieces, only the small bite-sized ones. But it's difficult to crush the formula stuff up. It's bonded very well.

Lupin

You will see them scramble to eat foods everywhere else, not just the bottom the moment they will become completely accustomed to your tank. Get them used to a variety of food and don't stick to a few as staple. You don't want them to forever find that sort of food once the lack of such food supply happens.