Feeding Discus with Mealworm? Or other ways to "PUMP" them up?

**nicklimzhiwe** · 21st Sep 2009, 00:34

Yo.. Being really up on discus recently and hear lots of people talking about "beefing up" the discus with beef-heart..

I was wondering to myself, is there other ways (foods) to "beef up" the beautiful fish?

Arowana keepers like to pump their babies with super-worms.. So I was wondering.. Will the smaller cousin, the meal-worms, make a good substitute as a food to help pump the beautiful discus? I bet if possible, meal-worms are easier to clean up after than beef heart too.. Just wondering if the discus will eat those little buggers..

Maybe we can all discuss and share about alternative methods of pumping discus other than using beef-heart.. Cheers!

**Interestor** · 21st Sep 2009, 00:44

cost is one of the main factors

With beefheart, you can add additional medication/vitamines as and when.

CHeers..

**shrimppaste** · 21st Sep 2009, 00:54

And I think beef heart is easier than mealworm. You just need to buy frozen one and break off anytime.

**nicklimzhiwe** · 21st Sep 2009, 08:16

Oh.. But from some searching around the net.. Found out that most commercial beef-heart and mostly just frozen liquid content rather than really beef-heart meet..

How about some paste made from fresh market prawn?

I thought meal-worms cause in the wild.. Discus eats bugs too..

**Fingerling** · 21st Sep 2009, 12:14

Mealworms is good in a way it thickens the body of your discus as it contains a high fat and protein content. However, too much of such high fat content foods can prove harmful to your fish. Try to give a variety, your fishes will appreciate you for that.

**darry** · 3rd Oct 2009, 00:47

Discus don't really like mealworms, i tried that many years ago and I recalled they did not even touch it and just watch the mealworms die in the tank.

Discus like Live Adult Brine Shrimp most, but this is really too expensive for a normal meal. A treat at times will be good enough. Please avoid Live Bloodworms at all times as the parasites will get into the discus easily and caused internal diseases.

Most discus hobbists will use BeefHeart or PigHeart, which is relatively cheap and can add other ingredients to booast the immune system. For dry food, tetra bits are the most popular brand. And finally the frozen food are Frozen Bloodworm and Frozen Brine shrimp.

As the saying goes:" You need to take a lot of stress in order to keep the discus away from stress"

**grouper** · 8th Oct 2009, 21:51

Own blend beefheart with multivit is good as you know what you feed. Can add deworm medication too.

**psp1000** · 10th Oct 2009, 20:59

Alots of people using beefheart for discus to pump it, but mine discus don't eat that, don't know why also. Everytime I feed, they just mass up with the beefheart and dirty the water. Therefore I have stop feeding them with beefheart now. Who want to buy ??

Heard from some shop, was told that best is feed them dry food, frozen bloodworms or any other frozen stuff might give problem, not sure it true or not, but till date, i'm feeding them bloodworms, but of cos, just by feeding frozen bloodworms, they grow slow and not as fat as feeding beefheart.

**grouper** · 11th Oct 2009, 21:33

Bro, beefheart is proven 1 of the best food to discus. You may want to start feeding them early morning first meal. Not too much, slowly they will accept the food. You may also want to check with the one you purchase the discus from what food they feed with. Also discus is usually hungry after water change.