Making my Time-tested and Proven Beefheart Discus Food Recipe (Good for Most Carnivorous Fish) 

Thank-you for the kind words, I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it, and I hope it helps you and your fish :)

LOL :) In fact, the gelatin is edible, human-grade, and is used to make desserts like jello for children to eat, and the vitamins are also perfectly fine for people, but in specific proportions to meet the requirements of fish, so this is entirely edible for people, but the smell of raw liver is what would put me off LOLOLOL :D You are correct though - the fish absolutely LOVE this food! Thanks again for another positive comment!

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 I'm wondering why you have stopped doing more videos? You should really upload more if you can. If possible shorter as most people are put off after 10 minutes...

@@ismaelbonal6537 when I began making videos, I had a long-term, full-time 9-5 job, and lots of spare time on evenings and weekends. The job I am working at now has crazy hours - night shifts, and weekends, overtime, and as well, it requires massive amounts of training and learning and writing tests; all of which makes it very very difficult to find time to breed my fish. In order to breed them, I need to set up a feeding schedule, and breeding tanks, and accommodations for the young fish, and I need to be able to feed those baby/adult fish on a regular basis - all of which is nearly impossible right now for me, let alone trying to find time to film and edit and post videos. Thankfully, this will not last too many more months, and I should be able to slowly start getting back into making more videos. The job I do now is life-or-death for myself, and literally millions of people each day, and if I make a mistake, it could cost lives, and I could end up in jail....so I have no choice but to put in the time, and learn what I need to learn, and put the videos aside just until I get this done. I appreciate the enthusiasm for more videos, and I will try to keep future videos shorter LOL ...no promises. I like to film, and post entire processes from start to finish. I'm not a fan of the videos which show part 1 of 15, 2 of 15, etc, etc. And that kind of video takes a lot of time, just because you cannot rush the fish :) I have several videos part-way through the filming process, so I will be putting out more in the near future; all I can say is thank-you for your enthusiasm/support, and stay tuned! :D

Joricano Everyone at some point in time has a bad experience with making their beef heart formula lol... that's why I made this video....okay, what went wrong for you? Maybe you can help others by sharing your failure? Don't worry....you are definately NOT alone here 😉

well my recipe was somewhat of a hybrid between Joey's recipe and some guy's that posted in a facebook group. Basically beef heart, fish,shrimps,spinach,garlic,gelatin,spirulina and asthaxin. All was good until i added the spirulina. I must've added too much because the while mix turned black..lol. At least the goldfish eats it. but the discus in the display tank and in the breeding tank don't like it

Yup, too much spirulina is not a good thing, just a touch will do. Discus are notoriously picky eaters, and if they don't like their food, they would rather starve than eat it - no joke! Some other things I would like to point out about your recipe that you might not know; I used to add spinach myself, until I found out that it was actually bad for the fish, and has been shown to leach vitamins out of a fish's blood (can't remember the study, I'd have to look it up) but you can substitute the red lettuce instead, which has all the iron, and other benefits, without the downsides of spinach - it is also really great at loosening up your ground meats in the blender without the need to add water. I also used to add shrimp to my recipe, but you need to be really careful about your source. If they are wild-caught shrimp, and not from an asian country, then yes, they are an excellent addition, but if they are the cheaper, farmed shrimps, avoid them like the plague. These shrimp are fed garbage, and their ponds are pumped full of chemicals and medications to keep them from getting diseases, and to top it all off, the farmers are known to use syringes to inject dirty pond water into the body cavity of the shrimps to increase their weight just before sale. If you boil them, (hopefully) all of the bacteria will be killed off, but if you use them as-is in your beefheart formula, you will make your fish sick for sure! Same thing with Salmon - use wild-caught only, I can't stress that enough! Other than that, your recipe sounds good, asthaxin is great, and so is garlic, but also should be added in moderation, so that your food doesn't reek of garlic, as this will turn off some picky eaters as well. Good luck with your next batch, hopefully it turns out better for you. If you need any advice, I'm happy to help :)

i think my next batch will be based on your recipe. i won't be using spinach but red lettuce instead. Thanks for the help!

Any time! :)

Ideally, you want to keep it as short as possible in the freezer, so try to estimate how much your fish will eat for approximately 3 months, and make only that much. I have kept vacuum sealed in the freezer, and used it after a year, and the fish still ate it, but I am sure some of the vitamins and nutritional value will degrade by that time. If exposed to oxygen, you will start to get freezer burn within a short time, and the texture of the food will change. I consistently see Discus refusing older beefheart for whatever reason, but as a rule of thumb, 3 months should be okay - write the date you made the food on the outside of the bag, or you will forget and keep it too long ;)

Your Discus should love this food, mine didn't need any convincing - they ate it the next day after shipping. What strain are you getting from Mr. Tan?

Thank-you! 😊👍

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 Hi, at 26:26 you said 1/2 cup which means how much ml? my agar agar powder instruct to add 10g (1 scoop) of powder to 100ml of liquid, so how much water and how much scoop should i add? I saw that you used 4 sachets of powder, is that a 10g pack?

@@JosephKarthic you should use whatever your instructions say on your particular product, as each manufacturer puts different amounts of powder into their sachets. A cup is typically 250ml, so half cup is 125ml but my point was that you should add half the water (cold) first with the powder, and stir it until there are no lumps, then add the second half of the water (boiling hot) which will start to set the agar powder. I used several packets of powder because I had a large amount of beef to cover with it - I added the appropriate amount of water to compensate for the extra powder. 4 times the powder, therefore 4 times the water on the instructions. If you aren't sure, it is best to test your agar before using it on the beefheart. Try mixing up the amount you think you will need, and do this a day before you make your beefheart. If it doesn't set properly, you have used too much water, or the second half of the water needs to be hotter, or whatever the case may be. Agar powder is cheap, so it doesn't cost much to experiment with it. Better to figure it out on its own, rather than experiment with expensive beef formula 😉

PS, ask someone who bakes cakes or desserts to help you - its the same as making jello.

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 thanks for your reply, unfortunately i added too much water and now the mix has more liquid than expected,, ill try to add some gelatinn powder and see if it thickens, but does this really makes water not cloudy? All the videos i saw in youtube has that free particles flowing around in the water whch makes it stinky and cloudy, So im thinking of only feeding blodoworms and FDBW etc...does beefheart really makes discus big? is it worth the hassle?

I'm off to work in minutes, but I'll try to answer your questions as well as I can. The lettuce is used as a source of iron (red lettuce, not green) and is absorbed by the fish quite readily, as well as serving to "liquify" the beefheart in the blender so that it can be ground into finer particles (avoiding intestinal blockage in fish which are far-removed from their wild counterparts, so sometimes try to eat what they can't digest). In the past it was standard practice to use spinach instead (never heard of using Kale) but it was found that it removed calcium from the blood of the fish, and had very little benefit in terms of iron absorption, so that is the reason for using the red lettuce instead of anything else.....yes it is tedious to de-vein, and my apologies for the amount of time this video dedicated to that process - it was one of my first, and I was still learning to edit videos :) Truth be told, I now believe it would be alright to remove the large center vein, and the larger side veins, but the smaller tributary veins should be okay to leave in, as long as your blender does a good job of breaking them down - you could also pass the blended matter through a sieve to remove any potentially larger pieces if you felt the need. As for your second question, I have always made my beefheart this way, until I aired this video. I had a professional chef comment on my technique, and now I feel a bit stupid about having done it this way. Yes, you are absolutely correct, that is is much easier to add EVERYTHING to the bowl, and then spread it out over the containers with parchment paper :P That is my current method, and I use the biggest soup pot I can find (preferably ceramic, not metal) and mix everything with a large wooden spoon, then dump it into portions over the shallow pots. Yes, agar-agar will work, and is more expensive, but it will work as well as the gelatin. You need to add enough gelatin to make the mixture liquidy, so that it will not cloud the water. It also helps to throw in the beefheart before it has had a chance to fully thaw, as that gets messy in the tank, once the fish start tearing it apart. I scald the liver because it is an essential part of the nutrient mixture of this food, but if added raw, is an absolute mess, and instantly fouls the water. With a quick scalding, the protein sticks together quite well, and still retains most of the nutritional value. The beefheart on the other hand, is process into very fine "burger" meat, and even if dropped directly into the tank, will not foul it badly, so that is why I do it that way. Sorry about the short reply, but I really do have to get to work. If I haven't answered everything to your satisfaction, please feel free to ask more, as often as you like, thanks for checking out the video, and I hope you and your fish enjoy the end product! :)

Thank you for your quick response. The difference between the two types of lettuce is negligible. There is really no point in removing the vein aside from removing water content, but in reality the only purpose of adding the lettuce is water. It's virtually useless nutritionally, including fiber content. Anyway, don't feel stupid -- this is a learning process and we are all in the same boat. It would help us all to refine our methods. If we consider nutrition, effort and cost, it's sure that we can cut some corners. Consider baby food. The real key as far as I'm concerned is holding everything together, which gelatin is not up to the task when it comes down to it. The best gel food I've tried was this "Rapashy food", which used algae as a binding agent as far as I can tell.

WhoCares2509 Again, you are correct that there is little difference between green and red lettuce ( slightlu different vitamin/mineral composition). The red is known to be softer of the 2, and that is the reason for removing the veins. Discus cannot properly digest vegatble matter, and any larger peices of vein coukd potentially cause a blockage in their intestines - and I have done autopsies on friends' Discus which pointed to this as being the djrect or indirect cause of death. Lettuce is a rich source of vitamins A and K (K is used to make a protein which moves Calcium into the bones) K is important when keeping your fish in very soft and acidic water for that reason. Spinach has been found in tests to leach Calcium out of bones and prevent further absorbtion. Red lettuce also contains caretenoids beta-carotene as well as micro amounts of other vital minerals. Since we are using vitamin additives in the mix, these minute amounts are negligable, but I always like to assume that my vitami additive is never quite as spectacular as the manufacturer suggests - even in the best of conditions, certain vitamins will deteriorate rapidly, and depending on the age of the bottle, the original content (not regulated), and the conditions it was stored in, there may be large gaps between what the label claims, and what is actually in the bottle. I have always used gelotine in my mixtures. The secret to a good solud gel being formed is to first dissolve in bouling wzter and then add the cold...in exact amounts as per the label Wnen I first started making this beefheart mixture in the early 90s, I managed to mess up a few batches by not doing the gelatine correctly. This lead to messes in the tanks and a huge strain on the filtratiom systems, as well as me - more water changes were definately needed :) I know some people dont ise any binding agent, and personally I shudder at the thought. Agar-agar can also be used, and I know several people who swear by it, but having been given a sample of their food to try, I didnt see any difference in clouding of the water, but I did notice that my fish prefered my formula to theirs (perhaps because of being conditioned to eat mine). I have also seen a youtube video of Matk Weisse using only powders and algaes to form his food, but it looked like A LOT of effort and time. My fish grow big and strong and most importantly breed frequently and easily, so the way I see it, they must be getting everything they need out of the food already, so whybother with the additional work?

You bring up some good points. I do have to dispute the potential for blockage, however. If you are blending the lettuce, there is very, very little chance that it could cause a blockage, especially since you are using peas in your mixture which act as a sort of laxative for fish. I feed spinach to my plecos regularly and have never seen any negative effects. I fail to understand how a *slightly* different nutrient balance could destroy the skeleton of a fish. Kale may be more expensive, but I'd be interested in hearing about any experiments you might do in the future should you try it. Take a look at the nutritional values and I'm sure you'll agree that it's far superior to lettuce. Lettuce is next to useless, especially considering that you add vitamins to your mix. Even with the potential deterioration, the lettuce is the equivalent of drinking tap water to get calcium.

youtube cut my reply short...here is the rest....... All that being said, I do not recommend feeding a diet of strictly beefheart, or strictly anything for that matter. I always include a variety of foods, and I wont feed the beefheart for a day or two out of each week. I suppliment with frozen Hijari bloodworms, freezedried blackworms (live BW if Im trying to induce spawning in a stubborn pair) and live whiteworms, as well as live red wigglers (tiny sized, or cut into peices with a razor blade) as well as occassionalky feeding Tetra color bits and even fresh flake food from time to time (althougj flake is usually ignored by my fish). I will also keep a few bristle nosed Plecos in my non-breeding tanks to clean up any tiny particles of food which have fallen to the bottom and are too small for the Discus to care about....this really helps to keep watet quality good. I am now feeding my beefheart formula to feed my breeder and grow-out Angels, African Cichlids, Zebra and L201 Plecos, Tetras as well as other fish over the years- all with positive breeding results, but always with varried diets. Well, its taken me so long to tap this out on my phone that I see you already replied to part 1 LOL....

James, I have tried that in the past, and you are absolutely right, this is an easy and convenient way to store the beefheart. I used a rolling pin to flatten the mixture in the bags, and get them to an even consistency. I stopped doing this however, because I now make my beefheart in massive quantities, as I find it a chore to do this every couple of months, so I buy enough heart/fish/liver etc to make enough for 6 months of feedings. I have noticed that the fish seem reluctant to eat the food after about the 4th or 5th month, and I suspect it's because the thinness of the food in the ziplocks allows the food to succumb to freezer burn, and/or loses some of the taste and nutritional value. I did an experiment and put the food into air-sealed baggies (as in the video) in large, thick chunks, and left that in the freezer for 5 months. I then fed some of this thick meat and some of the thin, ziplock meat, to several tanks of different fish (Angels, Discus, Tetras, Corys, Plecos) and found that in every single case, the fish would eat the thicker meat with gusto, and avoided the thinner meat, leaving it to rot at the bottom of the tank, or picking at it with reluctance, only after the thicker meat was gone. The thicker meat smelled good - better than the ziplock - which seemed to lose all odor after month 2 or 3 and the color was nicer on the thick stuff too. I believe either the fish or the liver in the formula must have a fairly short shelf life in the ziplock bags, and my aquarium fish can definitely tell the difference. So, that being said, although I absolutely agree with you that the ziplock solution is more convenient, and easier to feed, I personally stick with the thick cuts in the air sealed baggies, and use a knife to shave the food down to size for feedings. If you are only making small batches (probably better for your fish anyhow) then yes, I would say your method is the way to go. Thanks for watching, and taking the time to comment with your suggestion! It may help other people when they browse through this comment section in the future :)

Yes, long term freezing would affect the thinner packs more (greater surface area). To increase the longevity submerge your packs in water and freeze, this minimizes the effects of freezer burn. I don't make more than 1 month supply at a time. Thanks for the video and good luck.

Thanks James! Very good idea - I use the water method when I freeze fish fillets for eating later on. It does a great job of preventing freezer burn and keeping the fillets tasting great! I might give that a shot at some point on my beefheart and see how it fares. Thanks again for watching, and for the great ideas :)

James Tetreault can u baked it? As in make it like a pellet? We don't normally use our refrigerator in a long time.. thanks if your gonna reply

Hmmm.....I have never heard of anything other than freezing the beefheart, so that when you thaw it, it is still moist, and full of all the enzimes (which would be destroyed by high heat if it was baked). I have a dehydrator machine, and have been wanting to try dehydrating the formula. This would remove the water (without excess heat) and shrink the meat mix to a tough, dry consistency. When re-hydrated (by putting in the tank water) it should return to almost the same form as it was before dehydration. I have not yet tried this method, but it might work for you. If you don't have a dehydrator machine, you can put the meat in an oven on the lowest setting, and leave the door open just a little, and maybe put an electric fan inside the oven so that warm air is constantly blowing over the meat. If you cut the meat into thin, and small pieces, this process should dehydrate them in a few hours. You test them by snapping one, if it bends, then there is still too much moisture in it, if it snaps, and is brittle, then it is done. If you tightly seal the dried meat in plastic bags (preferably air removed), this should last without refrigeration for several months. The only concern would be mold forming on the meat. I have an idea to stop this....I think if you packed the meat in lots of salt, mold couldn't form, and before you feed it to your fish, make sure to shake all the salt off, and give it a quick rinse with water. If you do decide to give this a try, I would very much appreciate if you would come back to this page, and comment about your success or failure. Thanks!

Mike, I'm very happy to hear that! If you made it according to this recipe, then you can rest assured that your Discus are getting the best quality food that you can possibly give them, both in respect to good nutrition and taste - as your fish will attest to ;) Don't hesitate to vary their diet with some Hikari frozen bloodworms, or maybe some freeze dried california blackworms, and/or some good old live white worms; your fish will color up beautifully and this will likely put them into spawning condition too. I'd suggest subscribing to my channel, as I will be making several videos along these lines in the coming months - happy fish-keeping, and I'm happy to help with any other questions or concerns you may have.

+Breeding Aquarium Fish The only thing that I used that was different was the fish, I used salmon. I also had the same problem with the peas, and my dog made out like a bandit too. I have blood worms but they are not Hikari. I really didn't realize how much filler the commercial freeze dried food that I had had in it until I made your mix. I tried to match the amount I was normally feeding them (commercial freeze dried) with the stuff that I made on Friday, lets just say I overfed them. Good news is soaking the liver was great advice because it didn't foul up my water. My wife who never comments on my fish, told me she thinks my red checkerboard discus has already started to brighten up. I will subscribe to your channel and thanks again.

+Mike Brinson Not only is there no filler in this food, but it is fresher, you control what's in it, and it will cost you a LOT less to make it yourself. A couple of things I wanted to comment on; first, regarding the peas, try putting in a tablespoon of the liquefied lettuce, then put them through the processor, it helps with the process. second, if you have red Discus, try to get your hands on some Xanthophyll, Astaxanthin, or feed every other day with some Krill or even Tetra Color Bits food. All of these will hugely enhance the red color in your fish. third, I have heard that some manufacturers of Bloodworms harvest them from very unsanitary conditions, and their guts are loaded with some nasty stuff, which could potentially make your fish sick. I have heard of some fish contracting Hex from such food. I am confident in the Hikari brand, as are many other Discus breeders, so just be cautious with your brand, and watch your fish carefully - if they start to lose their appetite, or stop eating altogether, you will have to medicate them, and your bloodworms would be my first suspect. and lastly, about the Salmon. I used to use Salmon too. It is an excellent source of protein and good fats for your fish, if it is wild. The trouble is, I went out west to British Columbia in 2013, and I saw the wild Sockeye making their runs, and dying in the river for no apparent reason, still full of eggs. I didn't know why, and I started poking around on the internet. I found this documentary, and I will never use Salmon again, not wild, and definitely not farmed. The diseases they harbor thanks to the fish farms is not something I want my fish to be exposed to, but this is a personal choice, and if all you can find is Salmon, then it is still better than nothing. Check out this documentary and you will see what I mean.... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MTbxOFcvC4U.html Again, great to hear that your fish are enjoying the food, any other questions, feel free to ask anytime.

+Breeding Aquarium Fish Thanks again, I have some Omega One Discus pellets that have Astaxanthin in it. Thanks for the heads up on the bloodworms, I will pick up some Hikari brand next time I am at the pet store. This is my second go round keeping discus, and I appreciate all your advice. Looking forward to future videos.

+Mike Brinson "if they start to lose their appetite, or stop eating altogether, you will have to medicate them," Well it has happened, after about a week of the beef heart 4 of my fish stopped eating. It has been two weeks. I am thinking internal parasites. I have moved the 4 to a quarantine tank and have been dosing general cure, only thing I can find with Metro in it. Not sure if it was the salmon in beefheart or the bloodworms.

Thank-you for watching the video and for leaving a positive comment :) Absolutely you can add the vitamins and other ingredients into the blender for an even distribution! I carefully researched the ingredients for this recipe and adjusted them based on over 20 years of experience, but it turns out that I still have something to learn about "cooking" 😉 A few people have suggested the same idea as you, and I have tried it, and it is faster and easier to do it that way. Thanks again for the comment and suggestion. :)

Just cold water from the faucet will work fine, but chilled water is okay as well. The instructions on the gelatin package instructs you to use boiling hot water to dissolve the gelatin, then add cold water to make it congeal into a gelatinous form. I like to wait until it has cooled a little bit before I add it to the beefheart mix, so that the heat doesn't destroy any of the vitamins in the raw meat.

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 one more question sir, i test my gelatin, rousselot brand, after i mix it with water and boiling water, i put inside chiller and it became jelly, when i put it outside chiller in room temperature it became water again. Is that normal?

@@darmawanhabibi6189 Yes, especially if your room is warm. Normally, gelatin will stay firm until it is warmed up (even slightly, like by eating it, the warmth of your mouth is enough to melt it). This is the reason that it is best to store your beefheart food in the freezer, and only take out as much as you need. Once you put it into your fish tank, it will slowly warm up, and the fish will peck at it as it becomes soft. Even if you choose to pre-warm the food by melting it before feeding to your fish, the gelatin inside should still be enough to keep the food from clouding in the water, even as the gelatin begins to melt. If you want to see the difference, try holding back a small amount of the food, and don't add gelatin to it, then try putting it in your tank, and compare it with a similar-sized amount of food with the gelatin added to it; you will see how messy the non-gelatin food is, especially once the fish start ripping it apart. Hope this helps?

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 thank you for the explanation sir.

@@darmawanhabibi6189 No problem, good luck making your food, I'm sure your fish will enjoy it!

Michael, I am sure you can find beefheart in Germany (my aunt lives there and in Berlin they have it in the butcher shops if you ask them to get it for you), but if you cannot find it anywhere, you can substitute round roast; you want a lean (least fatty) beef you can get, that's why Discus breeders use heart, as it is the leanest muscle in the body. I wouldn't recommend using Sheep hearts as they have a very pungent flavor and odor which your fish may not like, and won't eat = bad water!Remember, the beefheart is only 1/3 of this recipe, and is probably the LEAST important. Although it is called 'beefheart recipe' , the most important ingredients to your fish are actually the liver, and the saltwater fish fillets. If you use round roast, use maybe 25% round roast, and 40% beef liver, 30% fish fillets, and 5% lettuce/peas/garlic/gelatin etc. Also, you can throw in some clam meat, or any type of saltwater molluscs (rinsed of course) even octopus and squid or lobster meat or crab/crayfish will also be good to mix in, to take place of the beefheart. Watch your water quality with seafood though, as it can foul the water very quickly if your fish don't eat it all; feed smaller quantities more often, and if your fish don't eat it all, take the time to siphon the left-over food from the bottom before it has a chance to affect your water quality. Let me know how you make out, and feel free to ask if you run into problems!PS I am very jealous of your water - Germany has some of the best water in the world for breeding all kinds of aquarium fish, especially Discus - you definitely have an advantage there :)

Theoretically, because I change up the ingredients in each batch, and I make small batches, and alternate feeding with each one, then yes, they could eat nothing but this food and get everything they need from it. I may use shrimp and Salmon in one, and squid and Cod in another, and boiled octopus or clams with Smelts for another (of course the rest of the recipe stays the same - beefheart, liver, eggs, lettuce, etc, just the fish proteins change). Your fish may reject one of the formulas, and only eat the others, so next time dont use those ingredients because Discus can be ultra picky, like little children at dinner. Having said that, it is always always always best to feed a varied diet with as many different foods as you are comfortable with. Not necessarily having them all on hand at the same time, but maybe buy some Hikari frozen blood worms and feed them each evening as the last meal before lights out. Then when that runs out, get a pack of dehydrated black worms and do the same with those until it runs out, and if you want them to condition up for breeding, feed live white worms or red wiggler (the smallest baby worms) or even a small feed of live brine shrimp. Along with your other meal of alternating beefheart recipes. This simulates what would happen in nature - you might have a hatch of insects for a few weeks, or the fish discover a patch of worms in the riverbed and stuck around feeding on it until it is mostly depleted, then they move on. Doing this, along with a strict water change regime will almost certainly see that your fish are at their very best and will be in prime condition to attempt breeding. Long reply I know I'm guilty of them from time to time, but thanks for watching, I'm glad it you enjoyed it, and hopefully this helped you out somewhat :)

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 wow thanks a lot for the long answer! The more info the better for me! 😉 I'm new in de discus breeding and I have got one batch of 50 young fry now for about 5 months. But a lot of spawns after this one are going bad (white eggs and fungus) so I'm trying to change bit by bit to see what helps the best. Sorry for my English, but I'm from the Netherlands 👍 greets!

@@joop6045 Greetings from Canada Joop, and don't worry, your English is very good! If you already had a successful batch from the pair, then you are at least 75% of the way to success with the second spawn. Fungus may be that the male is not fertilizing them properly, or that there is too much water flow around the spawning area. You can try turning off the air and filters for the short time that the pair are actually spawning, which will reduce water turbulence, and may help with your problem. In my opinion, it is very unlikely to be a food-related problem, because if this were the case, at least a few of the eggs would be viable. It could also be a water parameter problem, so you might want to check your pH and GH, more so the pH, and try to make it the same as it was when you had your first batch. Sometimes lowering the pH just a little will help with fungus. Make sure your aquarium is spotlessly clean from detritus too. When you suspect your fish are getting near their next cycle of spawning, wipe down the glass walls and floors of the tank, and clean the filter, then siphon the bottom and do at least 50% water change, and it may help with the fungus. Alternately, you can try some anti-fungus chemicals such as methylene blue or malachite green, but be very careful with these, as they can stain your hands and the silicone of the tank, and may do more harm then good. I would only use chemicals as a last resort - remember in nature, there are no chemicals, and the fish are able to spawn just fine. If all of this fails, try giving the pair a rest in separate tanks away from each other for a few weeks, then put them back in. You may be surprised what a little vacation can do for your fish. I like to feed live foods to my breeders to condition them before spawn - white worms and black worms or red wiggler worms are the best things you can feed. If you feed only worms, they have ALL the nutrition your fish will ever need, and you can be sure they are not lacking in nutrition. Hope this helps, good luck, and let me know how your efforts turn out! :)

Thank-you Mark. Those particular Discus are from breeder Tony Tan, and he called them "Altum Flora Stripe Turquoise". Names of strains can get confusing because different breeders call the same strains by different names sometimes. He has a strain which he calls "Altum Flora" which I believe were crossed with a Blue Turquoise to get the fish you see here. I am currently working on raising the third batch of fry from this pair, and once the first batch starts to colour up, I will be in a better position to know what the parents' genetics are. I will have a video on breeding Discus coming up soon.

I have never tried goat heart, but it should be okay to use. You just have to make sure to remove all veins and gristle and especially hard fat. As long as the goat does not have an unpleasant taste or smell to your fish, they should eat it without trouble. I have heard of people using chicken and/or turkey hearts as well for this formula, and they say it works. If you try the goat heart, please write back, and let me know if it works for you, or if it doesn't. It could help others in the future, if they ever want to try goat - good luck!

Because you have young, developing fish, I would be putting vitamins in your mix as this could affect their rate of growth, and their final size. If I were you, I would finish this batch, then make a few improvements. Although it is called beefheart mix, the heart is only there to keep the mixture together (binding agent) and offers little in nutrition. I would definitely add at least beef liver 1:1 with the heart. I would not use spinach as it used to be a common additive to beefheart mixture, until studies found that it had harmful side effects, and breeders began to substitute blanched red lettuce instead. The carrots are unnecessary but won't hurt if used in very small quantities - it will be largely undigested by your fish. I would also add some sort of aquatic protein such as fish or shrimp or boiled clams in a ratio of 1:1 with the heart/liver mix. This will balance out your mixture and with a more balanced food, your fish will grow out properly, and you can feed this mixture exclusively. And definitely add vitamins. I like to make small batches but each one with a different fish protein. One will be Cod fish, one Salmon, one shrimp and I will feed one in the morning, then a different one at noon and the third at night. This keeps it interesting for the fish and they never get bored of the food. If you feed the same formula all the time, they will surely become bored and either stop eating all together or just start to pick at the food without eating it all. If you get to this stage, even if you change the formula, they may not eat the new formula either, and now you will have a problem with feeding them...same thing happens if you ever decide to feed live black worms- they will very likely refuse every other food after that. Oh yeah, one other tip - make your food 50% with garlic and 50% without and feed every other day. I have found over the years that feeding exclusively with garlic seems to bother some fishes digestive system, and they bloat up. You may notice one or two fish refusing the Gaelic formula and then gobbling up the non garlic food. Hope this helps, thanks for watching, and if you have any other questions, please dont hesitate to ask :)

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 thank you very much for this nice reply. So I will make another mix with heart and cow liver and I will the liver in hot water same as you did I will make lactues insted and remove carrot and add some vitamin and see food fish. If you be so kind and send me the recepie in my private email and the name of the vitamin and I would like a help can you please tell me a medicine which I can use from time to time as preventation from internal and external parasite. Please note I live in Belgium so I have option to buy from Amazon.fr and Amazon.de Since some us ptoudct are not available here also please suggest me some flakes by name My email is algezouliabdul@yahoo.com Thank you

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 also I saw in the vedio that you add some gelatine . So I will make my mix as below. 1_ cow liver half kilo 2- cow heart half kilo 3_red lettuce good amount 4- shrimp 1/4 kilo 5_ garlic with half of the above and other half with out garlic 6 gelatine with now added smell or any thing I will search red colour one Vitamin But please send me how to do it and the quantity also the name of vitamin and the name of the flake And if there is preventation medecation to give from time to time please also let me know? I have a question a part I am using Aqua safe tetra Easy balance tetra Easy life benficial bacteria Easylife filter media With all this do i still have to change water every week ,please note I have 3 filter FX 6 Fluval. Eheim experiance 250 ,and the internal filter which come with juwel and my aquarium only 240 L So please advise me can i change water every 3 weeks or every month or what do you advise? Thank you lot My email algezouliabdul@yahoo.com

@@breedingaquariumfish9830 I also have some ready made cichild sticks but I use to give it to my african cichild is called biodegradable plastic Cichlid sticks Prodac is the brand name Can I give it to my discus or not I don't know how to send you the photo but you can look at the internet Compstion is Omega 3:6 Vitamin A,C,D3,E Fish and fish by prouduct Cereals Soja Crustaceans Grass Algae Analytical Raw proteins 44% Raw ashes 9% Raw fat 5.8% R Raw fiber 4.87% Moisture 5% Vitamin A Omega 6 Vitamin D Vitamin A E C Is it good Pls check Thanks Nasir

@@elgezouliabdul4973 I just finished typing a long reply, and when I posted it, somehow it didn't show up on the board....I will try again but in shorter segments....you asked a lot of good questions, and I will try to answer.

Thanks for the compliment Matthew, they are even bigger now since the time that I filmed this video, and the male is truly stunning if I do say so myself :) To answer your question, yes I am breeding them, and so far I have raised about 300 babies to adults from this pair. At this time, I am resting them for the winter in the community tank, and I will resume breeding them in the spring. I am thinking about doing a breeding video on Discus, but there are already so many out there, that I'm not sure if it's worthwhile - I'll decide in 4 months....stay tuned.

+Breeding Aquarium Fish If you ship, i'd be interested in some :)

+Matthew Ng I can definitely ship, and when I get them back into the breeding tank in the spring (April/May) I will let you know, and if you're still interested, you can have your pick of the litter :)I have had no problems selling the offspring as they are even more beautiful than the parents, with smaller, bright red eyes, and more vibrant blue colours. Some have amazing patterns and swirls, while others are carbon copies of the male fish with straight dark lines on a blue background. I have also been getting some very impressive fine lined blue snakeskins out of this pair.

Keep me posted please:)

+Matthew Ng Absolutely Matthew, you'll be the first to know when I get them breeding again in a few months.

About 20 years ago when I first made this recipe, I used Spinach, as it was supposed to be an excellent source of Iron, and good roughage for the fish. Several prominent breeders have pointed to studies done around the world, which seem to indicate that Spinach leaches Calcium from the fish's bones and blood and does more harm than good. The next best source of Iron and good green roughage, is red lettuce; when blanched, it is perfectly digestible, and provides minerals, and does not leach anything out of the fish. It is also really good at "liquifying" the meat mixture when it is in the blender, without the need to add water to the mixture, so it's a win/win. I think you can also use the green "table salad" type lettuce, but if you look at data comparing green to red lettuce, the red is much higher in vitamin/mineral content, with every other factor staying the same. I have also heard of people using kelp and other salt-water based algeas and seaweeds, where they rinse all the salt off, and blanch, then add to the formula - I have never tried this, so I can't verify it, all I can say is that the tried and true method is red lettuce, with some extra green peas for a bit more roughage. Again, if you want to experiment, try doing a small batch with something else, and see if it works. This is how everyone did it in the early days of Discus keeping. Every week someone would have a new recipe with carrots or bananas, or paprika, or some other new "secret" ingredient which they thought would set their fish apart from the others, but over the years, I've done my research on each ingredient, listened to many many hobbyists' opinions on the matter, and have landed on this recipe as the one that seems to work flawlessly, every time. Please let me know if you try something else, and it works - I'm always happy to learn :) Oh yeah, also remember that just because you make the recipe, doesn't mean that the fish will actually eat it LOL I've seen some formulas which were snubbed by fish - even when they were hungry, and would happily eat anything else (including other recipe beefhearts) so if you experiment with this recipe, do it in small batches :D

Breeding Aquarium Fish lettuce is not a common in my place can be found in burger and others stuff. We have plenty of spinach variety and is common that's why I asked for the lettuce substitute :D . I'll let you know when I try them

You can probably use the spinach if you blanch it and drain off the water. Discus breeders in the 90's swore by this method, and their fish were fine for the most part. However, there are still people who believe that the once common disease of Discus, called "Hole-in-the-head" was caused by an imbalance of minerals/vitamins, caused by the addition of Spinach. Maybe if you can find the baby spinach, it won't be as bad, but lettuce can easily be grown, pretty much anywhere, and it only takes 3 weeks or so, until you have a nice large plant - maybe that's an option for you? If all else fails, and you don't want to use the spinach, just leave out the greens altogether. That's the beauty of this hobby - lots and lots of room for experimentation, and the joy of finding something that works well for you (and others). PS, if you don't mind me asking, what part of the world are you in?

Breeding Aquarium Fish Tamil Nadu, India

Ah, so it is likely too warm and dry, where you live to grow lettuce easily?

Yes, any fish which eats meat will love this!

I made a video of it, if I can find it, I'll put it up for you, but basically it's a ceramic flower pot with the bottom of it cut out (used a tile cutting bit in the dremel tool) then the flower pot it inverted and silliconed to a ceramic tile. I then cut a piece of PVC to the correct height, and cut some large notches in the bottom part of it, then I put silicone on the bottom and put it through the hole I cut in the flower pot, and finished it off by silliconing the PVC to the pot; once the silicone is dry, I filled the entire PVC tube with glass marbles to weigh it down - this is the reason for cutting notches in the bottom of the PVC so that the marbles can get into the flower pot for maximum weight. You can also fill with sand, but make sure it's inert sand, so that it doesn't affect the water hardness in your spawning tank. Now simply put on a PVC cap of appropriate size, and the contraption is finished. I filled the thing with water before putting it in the tank so that there was no air inside for bouyancy - you don't want it moving around in the tank. The fish seem to LOVE this for spawning, and the pot and tiles catch the fry which may fall off, and they are easily seen by the parents on the white tile or even on the green pot. I always use light colours as the newly swimming fry will try to attach to anything which is dark in colour, so you don't want a dark spawning cone, you only want them to be attracted to the parents, which will turn darker once they spawn. Hope that helps you out - I will try to find the video of the making of this spawning cone, and put it up for you :)

Hey CrowntailHalfmoon, I found 2 vids that I made on my old cell phone, as I was toying with the idea of making a youtube vid of this project, and it never happened; I just need to find the old com cable for this cell phone (old phone) and I will put it up for you to see - for what it's worth - it's not the greatest video, but will at least give you an idea of how I did it....stay tuned :)

Okay, sorry it took so long, but I finally uploaded the 2 videos I found of me making this cone. Keep in mind that they are crude, and not edited so there are a few places where nothing happens for a while, but it is what it is :) I have put a comment under each vid to sort of describe it, and I have uploaded it to my personal channel, not this channel because if I uploaded those raw videos here, I would probably lose subscribers LOL Anyhow, enjoy, and if you have questions, ask them on this channel, and I will be happy to help! copy and paste these links, video 1 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-twMB8tz_RKg.html video 2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X4UxyBZUrbM.html enjoy! :)

Thank u so much Appreciated.

You're very welcome, I'm always happy to help out fellow hobbyists in any way I can :)

Thank-you very much :)

Thank-you for that excellent idea! It had never occured to me to use baby food peas. I am litteraly 6 hours away from making another 3 months supply of beefheart food; I have all the ingredients ready in the fridge and am going to assemble it all, right after work....now I think I need to go back to the grocery store for baby food peas 😊 I only use beefheart as a binding agent and "filler" since just using fish and beef liver would be messy to feed - even with the gelatin. I did see chicken livers in the store, but knowing what I know about mass chicken farming, and knowing that the liver is what filters out all those chemicals, antibiotics, steroids, etc, I opt to not use them - but that's just my personal choice. I have been breeding Discus, and making this formula for over 25 years now, and Im still tweaking it, so thanks again for the baby food idea, and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the video - thanks for the nice comment ☺

The King of DIY (Joey) uses beet heart as well. The fish love it BUT it is hard to digest. I like ANY fish that is on sale (the fatter the better), Shrimp, Clams Scallops, erc. and the eggs also vitimins. They say beef heart is to hard to diguest and can cause bloating. I don't use it, i am a fish and more fish kind of guy vitimins egg.. Shrimp and clams all work as well. Woody's Discus (FB)

My next batch of Discus food will be EARTH WORMS !!!! Gp water the lawn and up they come. Put them in a bucket , shred up a news paper. put it all in a five gallon bucket . in a month it will be FULL,(just keep adding paper).. Add fish shrimp baby peas from the market , If you see ANY other greens gab as well. Discus eat greens and worms in the wild. DO not forget to add hot , hot water to kill any bacteria. WARNING ! this will go right through your fish as it will be way more natural No bloating, mote W/C's

I always blanche my greens before putting them into the mix. I just finished washing my hands after another few months worth of food is now setting up in the freezer before going into bags later on today. I also have added other interesting ingredients to my mixes in the past, such as clams, squid, mussels, lobster, crayfish, snails, octopus, and many different types of saltwater fish. They were met with varying degrees of success. Sometimes the fish didn't care for it at all (in one case I added too much spirulina powder and the mix turned an ugly shade of green, and in another case, I added too much garlic and the fish shunned it). Sometimes it turned out that the ingredients had an excessively short shelf life in the freezer, or fouled the tank too much, so I kept tweaking the formula and came up with this one which works splendidly, and I do modify it from time to time (or some small percentage of it as a test) , as certain items become available/in season (=cheap)....this time, I did a test with baby peas, and I think it will turn out just fine. I have tried to cut out the BH altogether in the past, but I found that the food didn't stand up well in the tank, and when BH was included, the fish waste looked firmer, darker, and more healthy to me, so I continue to use it to this day, although in smaller amounts then I did in the past. I also have tried using worms in the past. I don't like chopping them, and they don't freeze well at all, so now I keep several cultures of white worms going, and I feed every day with freeze-dried blackworms, and as a treat, some frozen bloodworms from time to time. The red wigglers, and nightcrawlers that I have tons of, are now used strictly as bait when I'm fishing ;) I've never had issues with bloating because my BH is minced up super fine, and I don't feed any one thing exclusively. My fish never know what's next on the menu, and that way they stay interested in eating, and always are alert when I step anywhere near the tank :D This year I am going to try netting glassworms from the surface of the lake I live near - just waiting for the ducks to give me the signal that these insects are at the surface - when I see them all skimming the surface with their beaks...any day now. I know fish love these things, and I can net out and freeze tons of the stuff. I also collect ant eggs and freeze them in the right season - they are packed with protein and vitamins, and the fish go crazy for them. Sorry, I rambled a bit there....I tend to do that when I talk about something I'm passionate about :)

+Spencer Newberry Absolutely. As with any fish though, it's not a good idea to feed any one food exclusively. Your fish will grow tired of it - same as if you only ate steaks for breakfast lunch and dinner every single day - eventually you would grow sick of it. So the beefheart is great as a staple food - you can definitely feed it to your Oscars every day, but also throw in some other types of food each day as a treat - pellets or live crickets, or live mealworms, Oscars LOVE earthworms and those Red Wiggler worms that are used for composting! And every once in a while treat them with some feeder goldfish or pieces of shrimp (if you're having shrimp for dinner, throw the Oscars a chunk of raw shrimp). Also, if you're feeding beefheart daily, always remember to keep up with tank maintenance, and clean the gravel (if you have gravel bottom) and do a partial water change once a week to keep things sanitary in your tank, and your fish will thank you for it :)

I use pure R.O. (Reverse Osmosis), which is about 90% pure water when it comes out of the RO unit. I then fill an aging container, which is a plastic 18Gal (68L) tub with this water, add a heater to bring it to 84 degrees, an airstone to aerate it, and each week, I put in a new "sock" full of natural peat moss to bring the pH down slightly below 7.0 and to stabalize the RO water's pH swings. I use the water from this aging tub to do 50% water changes every day. I will put out a youtube video on how I breed my Discus in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Nice. Thanks for the reply. I'm just curious, do you also use RO water with all of your discus or only when you're breeding them?

Generally the RO water is only used for breeding, and conditioning/stimulating the breeding pair prior to egg laying. The soft water keeps the membrane of the freshly laid eggs permeable so that they can be fertilized by the male. In hard water, the fish may still spawn, but the eggs very quickly absorb the hard minerals from the water, and your fertilization percentage will drastically diminish - even if the eggs do manage to become fertilized, there is a possibility that the babies will not be able to break out of the hardened egg 'shell' once hatching time arrives. That being said, once the eggs hatch into wigglers, I start to slowly add a cup or two of aged tap water with every water change, and by the time they are free-swimming, I start aiming for 50/50 tap/RO, and with every water change thereafter, I keep adding less RO and more tap water to the aging tubs, until at about 2 weeks of age, the fry and parents are in 100% aged tap water. The young fish grow better with minerals in the water, and it is easier to do large water changes using readily available tap water. The parent fish don't mind it either, as long as it is aged for 24 hours prior to the water change being done (aging removes Chlorine, aerates, brings it to the right temperature, and stabilizes the pH) I also use RO water to breed many of my aquarium fish such as Angelfish, Corys, Tetras of all kinds, Betas, and even BN Plecos seem to breed more readily in this water. I Use the "bad" water which is harder than straight tap water, to breed African Cichlids and other fish which like harder water. Hope this helps, and keep the questions coming if you have them - that's why I started making these videos, to help fellow hobbyists out.