Discus Fish Food Recipe

1 1/2 lb fresh beef heart
1/2 lb shrimp (shelled)
1 bunch of spinach
1 package of unflavored gelatin powder
1 multivitamin tablets (Centrum)

Take the beef heart and trim away all the veins and fat. Use a food processor to mince the beef harts. Place the beef heart in cheese cloth and rinse under cold water. Try to rinse as much of the blood out of the beef heart as possible and squeeze it when you are done. This will help keep your aquarium water clean. Chop up the shrimp now as well. Boil or microwave the spinach until and soft and it up. Put everything you have so far in a bowl and add the gelatin powder. The gelatin will act as a binder and help everything stick together. Now, crush the vitamin tablet and add it to the bowl. Mix thoroughly. Put the mixture into zip lock plastic bags, flatten it out, and put in the freezer. When you are ready to feed to your discus, break off small portions and thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

By making your own food, you have truly taken responsibility for your discus fish care into your own hands. It is really one of the best things you can do for your fish, and doesn’t take much time, since one batch can last for months. If you take the time to make your own fish food, I think you will quickly see an improvement in the health and vigor of your discus fish.

Hole in the Head

Hole in the Head is a common discus disease. Early treatment is important because the longer it lasts, the harder it is to cure. Left untreated, your discus fish will die. One common method to treat Hole in the Head disease is to raise the water temperature to about 36 degrees C for 8-10 days. You must make sure to increase aeration at the same time, since the additional heat will lower oxygen levels. If you notice that the heat treatment is stressful to your discus, you must lower the temperature and try medication.

Gill fluke

Gill flukes are a type of discus disease involving external parasites that infect the gills and cause heavy breathing and erratic swimming. Gill flukes are an especially bad problem for discus fry since their immune system is not strong enough to fight the infection compared to adult discus. Gill flukes can be treated with medication, but the best practice is to isolate discus fry into their own tank as soon as they are big enough to eat external food. This way, they won’t be infected in the first place by the adults.

Bacterial infections

Bacterial infections usually occur in aquariums with less than ideal conditions, but they can also happen in well maintained tanks as well. It would be impossible to identify every possible type of discus disease bacteria here without access to a laboratory, but fish stores can supply you with broad spectrum antibiotics that will treat a number of different infections. Make sure to follow the directions closely, so as not to overdose your fish. In many cases, a significant improvement can be seen within 8 hours.

Most cases of discus disease can be prevented in the first place by regular water changes, a clean diet, and quarantine methods. However, if your discus fish become sick it is important to take action immediately. In an enclosed ecosystem such as a fish tank, small problems become big problems quickly. I encourage you to become knowledgeable about various fish diseases and treatments so that you will be ready to act if need be. Good Luck!

Product Overview

Discus Fish Secrets is a manual that promises to teach you how to easily keep and breed discus fish. The book was written by tropical fish enthusiast, Rob Clark. Rob has been keeping and raising discus fish for more than 10 years, and shares his first hand knowledge about the do’s and dont’s of discus care in the book.

Discus Fish Secrets covers several topics such as what tank size and shape is best for discus, the best filtration methods, tricks for getting the best water chemistry, and what types of discus are best for beginner owners. The manual also goes over what foods are best for discus, how much they should be fed, and how often.

Lastly, Rob has information for owners who are already keeping healthy discus fish, but are now interested in breeding. Discus Fish Secrets explains how to tell when your discus are ready to breed, gives common errors people make when breeding, and specific steps about how to care for fry once they have hatched.

Evaluation & Customer Feedback

If you are already interested in discus fish, you probably have found that specific information from an experienced source is hard to come by. This book is great because it is a complete ‘blueprint’ to keeping, breeding, and raising discus fish. Is is full of practical time tested advice from a fellow aquarium lover to help you to raise happy and healthy fish.

One negative I found with the book is that I would have liked to have more explanation into discus diet needs. Rob covers the basics, but I would love to find some more information about food preparations outside of commercial fish food.

The general online consensus from owners of this manual is that if you are new to discus fish, or if you have tried breeding unsuccessfully in the past, Discus Fish Secrets is a great resource to have. It contains practical advice and information from an experienced expert who has organized everything for you in one place.

Product Details

Click Here To Visit The Official Discus Fish Secrets Site

Probably the #1 cause of water problems is failure to test the water before adding it to the tank. With discus care, this is doubly important because as you probably already know, discus are prone to stress easily. The tap water in your area is full of chemicals designed to help humans, but this is usually not the best thing for your fish. Also remember that your tap water ultimatly comes rain water and runoff, to the chemistry is constantly changing due to the increase in the world’s pollution. For these reasons, it is critical that you test your water at every change.

Chloramine and Chlorine
Chlorine or chloramine are routinely added to the public water supply in many parts of the world. Chlorine is damaging to discus fish and chloramine is worse. The presence and concentration of either chemical can be found with a tester that you can get at your local aquarium shop. “Conditioning your water” is a synonym for removing chlorine or chloramine and is an essential part of discus care.

Water Hardness
If the water hardness is not correct for your discus, it can be adjusted. It’s easier to increase hardness up rather than down, but lowering these values is still possible, it just requires an extra water conditioning step.

About pH
Discus can be picky about pH. Keep your pH between 5.5 and 7. The ideal pH for discus care is about 6. Discus can get stressed at At pH levels above 7. Below 5.5, the pH is can drop too rapidly, so I find 6 to be comfortable for both the fish and the care taker.

This has been a brief overview of water chemistry as it relates to discus care. This only covers the high level basics, and there are times such as breeding when special care must be taken to ensure different conditions. In general, discus are really not hard to care for, as long as you give them what they want. And, what they want is fresh clean water.