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Ive had 2 discus for about 2 and a half weeks now. They are in a tank with a ropefish, feeder guppies, and 6 palateus corys.
The first week I got them i could not get them to eat. I had tried hikari discus pellets and dehydrated blood worms. Worried about the fish I drove back to the fish store and asked and apparently they are fed only blackworms. Sure enough they eat these things like candy.
I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to coax these fish to at least notice these other foods as they fall right in front of them.

Well, a couple days of not feeding the bloodworms, they should be hungry enough to take what you offer. IME discus aren't really picky at all, except when fed only one type of food. A balanced mix of foods should be offered as bloodworms don't offer all of the nutrients that they need. (This is true for all fish, not just Discus).

Hi there,

I also have very fussy discus that will only and I mean only eat blackworm, I have tried everything to entice them to eat other food but even after 2 weeks of not eating they will not eat anything else.

I am in the process at the moment of LACEING the blackworm with some other types of food and increasing the amount of other food such as beefheart mix in with the worm and it is starting to work. They are now starting to eat all the food that is offered and not pick out the blackworm from the mix. ( a bit like kids with veggies hey) LOL

All I can say is keep offering the other food and not blackworm and eventually they will have to eat other things or go hungry which they wont do.

Good luck

Trace

lacing sounds like a very good idea. Thanks for the advice, I know they need to eat a variety its just so hard watching the food im trying to feed them fall right in front of their faces while they are being fed nothing else.

I rotate frozen foods. I have one for everyday of the week for my discus community tank. ALL my fish have amazing color and health. of course I change the water several times a week. Its densley planted etec etc etc. But I am convinced that a very varied diet really helps.

Yeah no kidding. First they went for "Discus Hamburger" since thats what they eat at the fish shop, but right after they get those blood worms in their mouth, they are tough to get them to eat anything else..

Lacing---was something I was thinking about too

A while ago i bought an additional 2 discus to help spread the aggression that was apparent when I only had 2 (the two that only ate blackworms). These new discus were sold to me by a wonderful lfs and they had been fed on hikari frozen bloodworms. From that point on I only started feeding frozen bloodworms and before long the old discus's seeing the newcomers eating it decided to try it. Now I have all four of them eating a variety of frozen foods. I did this by feeding a full serving of blood worms and at the same time a cracked icecube of another type of frozen food. I continued to do mixed servings until i had mostly other frozen food with a partial serving of blood worms and then I finally just fed them the other food by itself. A variety has really livened and colored them up. It was definately worth the trouble. Oh and by the way I could never get anything to eat the freeze died blood worms so that was quite the waste of money.