Best food for Discus Fish
Introduction
Discus fish can feed on basically anything which can include fish flakes, pellets, and frozen or even live food. The best food for your discus fish would be a variety of foods in order for them to get all the nutrients necessary for their growth.
The types of discus fish food
One type of good discus fish food is dry food. This type of food contains many essential nutrients for the discus fish. This type includes fish flakes and fish pellets. Care should be taken though when you feed your discus fish with dry foods. For example, ensure you supplement fish flakes with live food in order to attain optimum health for your discus fish as far as essential nutrients are concerned. Also, ensure you soak fish pellets before feeding them to the discus to avoid bloating of the discus fish. We highly recommend the DiscusGuy high protein flake foods and high protein beef heart flakes
Another best food for discus live food which includes bloodworms, black worms and also white worms. All these happen to be one of the best foods for discus fish in terms of nutrient content. More so, they can be easily acquired in almost all the local pet stores and can be stored in preparation for feeding them to the discus fish.
Brine shrimps make another best food for discus fish and a good substitute for that matter for worms. This is because they are rich in vitamins as well as minerals. They can either be frozen or live brine shrimp. Be careful to rinse them to remove any salt that may be on them though before giving it to the discus fish and incase it was frozen, ensure you defrost them first. This is the best food for strengthening the discus fish colors as it contains beta carotene. We highly recommend you stay away from live worms and only feed frozen worms as live worms can have parasites and get your fish sick!
Apart from the above main food types, some discus fish keepers opt for homemade food for their fish and they use cow hearts to make them. One major setback for this however is that they dirty your discus fish tank and hence it would require more regular cleaning. All in all, discus fish generally and naturally prefer live foods and those are the best foods you can give them.
Discus fish feeding habits
When discus fish are still young, they require constant feeding. Baby discus will eat 10 to 12 times per day. Young fish will eat up to 5 times per day. Adult discus fish on the other hand eat 2 to 3 times per day. Be careful to not overfeed them. Overfeeding your discus could cause health problems and water pollution. Discus fish are sensitive fish who appreciate pristine water conditions.
Regardless of the time you feed your discus fish, always try to be consistent with your feeding routine. In the morning, wait for your discus to wake up a bit before you feed them. Turn on their lights and then give them some time to move around for a few minutes. After they eat their last meal of the day, give them time to forage and clean your tank. Don’t turn off their light until at least an hour after their final meal of the day.
Challenges when feeding discus
One possible difficulty is that sometimes, the fish won’t immediately swim and eat the food. As a result, the food will sink to the bottom of the aquarium. Any food that remains there will rot after two days, which will lead to bacteria. To solve this, you choose to include a bottom feeder in the fish tank, or you will have to manually vacuum the leftover food out of the aquarium before it begins to decompose and contaminate the fish tank.
