Discus Fish Food:how to make beefheart for discus ..

In our farm, our breeder has this formula below for our farm's discus. This diet is prepared to ensure our discus gets the best nutrition possible. The ingredients are mixed together and commonly referred to as "discus burger"

Additional Notes:

Beefheart is mixed raw.
We do not give Spirulina to our fish every day. Once a week, we mix in the food and feed them. The combination is 1 gm Spirulina per 100 gm.
Any brand of Spirulina will do as long as it is prepared for aqua culture use.
Any baby milk powder will do. It is a perfect food for baby discus. It will cloud the water. Change water after feeding.
Any multi vitamin can be used. Feed them once a week.
No gelatin or jelly is added. Use any container that can make cubes to put the food mixture. Place the container with the food mixture in the freezer to be frozen before use.

For discus hobbyist, if preparing the discus food is not possible, you can use AZOO 9 IN 1 DISCUS PELLET ( RED ). or AZOO 9 IN 1 DISCUS PELLET ( BLUE )

AZOO 9 IN 1 DISCUS PELLET ( RED )

SLOWLY SINKING TYPE ; PLUS GLUCAN ( Immunity Formula )

AZOO 9 IN 1 DISCUS PELLET, with glucan immunity formula and carotenoids

added, will accelerate the growth of discus and enhance the body color.

Ingredients:

Fish Powder, Wheat Flour, Corn Meal, Spirulina, Squid Meal, Fish Liver Powder,
Fish Oil, Krill Meal, Astacine, Carotenoids, PSB, Yeast Powder, Glucan, Sodium
Chloride, Multi-vitamins, Minerals.

Analysis:

Crude Protein: 49 % ( Min. ) Crude Fat: 4.8 % ( Min. )

Crude Fiber: 7 % ( Max. ) Moisture: 5 %

Improve colors using natural enhancer

Natural enhancer is to get from the natural food
The shrimps or prawns can improve in red
The cockle shell meat can improve in yellow
Spirulina can brighten the colors, especially red
Astaxanthin is 500 times more stronger antioxidant than vitamin E, it help to improve natural Red color,
Synthetic or artificially developed "Astaxanthin" is called as Carophyll, which comes in three different variant, Red, Pink, and Yellow............ Very commonly used in Discus fish farms

Discus Fish in our farm’s environment

Discus in our farm are kept in slightly acidic water. Water temperature is kept between 28° C to 30° C. Water hardness preferred by discus is soft, measured in Calcium carbonate mg / liter, between 20mg/l to 30mg/l. Water is changed twice daily at 80% volume of water in tank drained and replaced with fresh water.

Farm Water Measurement Table

Water Condition	Unit	Measurement Type
neutrality of water	6 to 7	pH
hardness	20 mg/l to 50 mg/l 1.12 °dH to 2.8 °dH	mg/L CaCO3 or ppm degrees German Hardness
temperature	28° to 30°	Centigrade

No discus fish should be kept in water with pH lower than 5 or
much higher than 7.5

Discus in their natural environment

Discus originates from the Amazon. In their natural environment, discus fish prefers clear water, soft and slightly acidic. They can tolerate high temperature up to 35°C when they are trapped in pools during dry spell seasons in the Amazon.

Preparing for shipment

Quarantine process
Discus are selected and then removed to be placed into tanks located in the quarantine section.

Quality Control
During the next two days, the discus are inspected by our master breeder for quality control check. Any discus fish found not meeting the quality standard will be removed and replaced by another.
Conditioning
Minimum of four days is required to condition the discus before shipment date. During this period, the discus will not be fed and water temperature lowered to 26°C.
Packing
Discus are packed two hours ahead before being shipped to the airport. Depends on the location of the airport chosen, travel time varies from 1 hour to 4 hours. Upon reaching the airport, health authorities and customs will inspect the shipment before loading into the plane for their final journey.
Mortality Rate
Base on our experience in shipping to locations where travel time takes between 36 hours to 40 hours (from packing to unpacking), mortality rate is less than 1%.

Aquarium Tank Basic Setup

Setting up your discus aquarium tank is fairly simple. Most aspiring aquarist has been deterred by choices of tanks, heaters and other equipment. However, the basic simple requirements to start are:

1) aquarium tank
2) aeration equipment
3) filtration systems
4) heating
5) suitable lighting

For more advanced aquarist, they will design their plumbing system to ease on water changes. There are plenty of resources in the web, you can find by doing a search with keywords "aquarium setup"

Aquarium Tank Size

What size should your aquarium tank be? Often we get questions from hobbyist how large their aquarium should be in order to ensure the discus grows well. There are no fixed answers for this, but as a general guideline to ensure a healthy environment without causing stress to the fishes.

Tank Size Guideline

General guideline for aquarium tank sizes and number of discus supported without causing stress.

Volume (Gallon)	size 2in # of pcs	size 3in # of pcs	size 4in # of pcs	size 5in # of pcs
29	56	18	8	2
40	70	24	12	4
50	100	30	16	5 to 10

Note: how to measure the discus, click here

We would normally recommend discus hobbyist to start with a 29 gallon tank. At a later stage, most likely you would need another community tank to display your discus. You can get a 40 gallon or 50 gallon tank depends on your budget. When a pair starts to mate, your 29 gallon tank would be a prefect size for your breeding pair.

Shop for your aquarium tank here!

Aeration Equipment

Do always try to buy a pump that is able to serve more than one tank. All pumps will wear down over period of time, causing weak aeration, getting a stronger one will allow longer usage. Good pumps can be used for several tanks and cost less than several smaller pumps.

Note: When placing your pump, ensure it is higher than the water level in the tank. Electricity blackout will cause water to be siphoned into the pump causing possible damage, especially to diaphragm pumps.

Shop for your pump here !

Aquarium Lighting

Fluorescent lightning provides the most popular and effective illumination for aquarium tanks. Benefits are:
- displaying the brilliant colors of discus
- enhancing the growth of tropical aquarium plants
- cost effective in terms of daily usage

Different lighting tubes will provide different usage:

Reddish glow lighting tubes will enhance discus colors dramatically. Recommended for aquarium tanks that do not have tropical aquarium plants as they are not the best tube type for encouraging plant growth.

Natural daylight lighting tubes will closely match natural daylight and are the best choice for plants. They will illuminate the aquarium tank but does not enhance the discus colors as much as the reddish glow type.

If you have discus and tropical aquarium plants in your tank, do consider having both lighting tubes installed. Keep your tank illuminated about 10 hours daily in order for health growth of plants. Too much light will promote algae, too little the plants will die and decay.

Shop for your lighting here !