discus food

dosing and feeding
Please feed your fish 3 times a day with our STENDKER discus food.
1 x in the morning (1 hour after the light is switched on)
1 x midday (always at the same time if you like)
1 x in the evening (2 hours before the light is switched off).

The discus fish get used to these regular feeding times and will eagerly await you. So feeding from the hand (of course cream and soap-free hands (brush well under running water) is very quickly possible.

Food dosage of our STENDKER discus food GoodHeart:
Our food is ideally suited as a complete food, please do not feed too much and be sure to defrost beforehand. (Tip: thaw the night before in the fridge in a food storage container with a lid)
For 10 discus fish with a size of :
– 6.5 to 12 cm, about ½-1 blister (2.5-5 grams) per meal, i.e. 7.5-15 grams a day.
– 12 to 18 cm, about 1-1 1/2 blisters (5-7.5 grams) per meal, i.e. 15-22.5 grams a day.
Give the animals about as much food as the fish have eaten in five minutes.
Please do not feed them any more, as uneaten food residues significantly worsen the water quality and water parameters. Discus fish do not have a pronounced feeling of satiety and too much food could lead to overfeeding of the animals.

Please be sure to thaw our frozen food before feeding! Discus don't like hard food and will lose their appetite if they bite into something frozen. In addition, the frozen food can (in some cases) also cause the discus fish to develop swim bladder infections or inflammation of the intestines.
Depending on the size of the tank and the number of fish, 2-3 feeding points have proven useful, so that the weaker animals in the group also have a good chance of getting the food. The thawed food can be easily portioned and fed with a knife or spoon. Our discus fish and other companion fish eat our food very quickly and with pleasure.

If you are unable to feed your fish 3 times a day for reasons of time, it is usually sufficient to only feed them in the morning and evening. However, the daily amount of food should remain the same. However, for smaller discus fish (less than 8 centimeters in size) it is recommended to stick to three meals a day to ensure even growth.
You are also welcome to have additional light snacks, such as mosquito larvae (but please not the red mosquito larvae, as they often live in polluted water and could thus introduce diseases into your aquarium).

Thawing instructions for STNKDER discus frozen food:
Take about as much frozen food from your freezer as you need for 2 days (3 meals a day).

TIP: With rose scissors, the required amount of feed can be easily cut from the frozen 500g feed board into portions.

Our thawed frozen food keeps in the fridge for about 2-3 days,
therefore, you do not need to repeat the defrosting process every day. Fill the frozen food into a fresh storage box and close it with the lid that comes with it. Then place this food tin in the refrigerator for gentle defrosting. After approx. 6 hours you can already use the thawed food. If the food starts to ferment or smells unpleasant after a few days, please wash the feeding container thoroughly with hot water and take out a new amount of frozen food for the next two days. Please do not thaw the food with a sieve under running water, otherwise you would wash away the important vitamins.

Our discus fish know and love our discus food, which is why they literally pounce on it, which is partly reminiscent of piranhas. Don't be alarmed if you only see a "cloud of dust" at the end. Our feed is eaten very quickly.

Why our STENDKER discus food is so good:
We have been breeding discus fish for more than 45 years (in Germany) and over the course of this time have developed a feed mixture specially tailored to the needs of discus fish. We feed our STENDKER discus feed exclusively to our own discus fish in our breeding facility. It contains everything that discus fish need for a healthy diet and is ideally suited as a complete feed. STENDKER discus feed contains a mixture of beef heart, vegetable components and much more, which makes a significant contribution to keeping our animals healthy.

When you see our animals, you will immediately see how well the discus fish are doing with our STENDKER discus food. Make up your own mind and give it a try. Of course, the quality of the feed depends on the careful production, the correct mixing ratio, the high quality of the ingredients, the composition and gentle preparation. With our feed you can be sure that we have taken all these factors into account to ensure that the discus fish feel comfortable and healthy.
In order to provide you with high-quality, comprehensive and very simple feeding, we offer our STENDKER discus food as a complete complete food through pet shops. Our STENDKER discus frozen food is available in 100 gram blisters, 200 and 500 gram flat bars. This good and balanced feed mixture contributes significantly to maintaining the health, colourfulness, reproduction and growth of the discus fish. Ask your pet shop.

By the way: Other fish also love our food.

For food for discus fish in general

In our opinion, beef heart was wrongly condemned in the media as feed for discus fish as “there are no cattle in the Amazon either”. Cattle are not treated with hormones, which is regularly checked by veterinarians. Beef heart is an animal protein that the discus fish absorbs in the wild from small crustaceans, worms and insect larvae. Since some of these animal species are hard to find in our latitudes, are expensive and sometimes heavily contaminated, beef heart is often used in our region as a source of protein for discus fish food. Of course, in our opinion, beef heart is sufficient as a complete food for discus fish.

In our opinion, turkey heart should be rejected because turkeys are usually brought to slaughter weight with hormones within twelve weeks and these hormones accumulate in the heart of the turkey. Since these hormone residues in turkey hearts used as feed for discus fish can lead to the fish artificially becoming sexually mature earlier (in 6 months instead of 1 1/2 years), we will not feed turkey hearts to our discus fish.

We also advise against red mosquito larvae and Tubifex as food for discus fish, as both types of food come from heavily polluted water (manure) and often introduce bacterial infections into the aquarium.

We also advise against Cyclops shrimps, as they often carry tapeworm larvae, which develop into tapeworms in the discus after eating and can lead to massive growth disorders.

We consider other types of frozen food, such as water fleas, Artemia, muesis, white and black mosquito larvae, to be good additional food, but should only be seen as a "candy", as the nutritional value of this food is very low.

Additive: Feed refusal after transport and use
After the transport, which is very stressful for the animals, and the moving of the discus fish in your tank, food intake can be delayed by up to four weeks, especially for the larger fish. The smaller discus fish (up to 14 cm) are less sensitive to this, feel at home in their new environment more quickly and usually eat quite well the next day. However, since our discus fish are generally well-fed, this refusal to feed does not pose a serious problem when the discus is almost fully grown. In such a case, we recommend slowly increasing the water temperature of your aquarium to 33°C for about two weeks (please think about the plants, move them beforehand!). This stimulates the metabolism and thus also the appetite of the discus fish. If our discus fish continue to receive their usual food (STENDKER discus food), it will be easier to get started.

Feed dosage of our STENDKER discus feed Good Heart:
Our food is ideally suited as a complete food, please do not feed too much and be sure to defrost beforehand.

For 10 discus fish with a size of :
6.5 to 12 cm, about ½-1 blister (2.5-5 grams) per meal, i.e. 7.5-15 grams a day
12 to 18 cm, about 1-1 1/2 blisters (5-7.5 grams) per meal, i.e. 15-22.5 grams a day
Food thawing instructions:
Take about as much frozen food from the freezer as you need for 1-2 days for feeding your discus fish 3 times a day.
Tip: the 500 g bars can be easily portioned with rose scissors. Take a freezer box with a lid and put the still-frozen discus food in your fridge the night before to thaw gently. This keeps the firm consistency.

Important instructions:
Be sure to thaw our food before feeding it! Frozen food can lead to intestinal obstruction in discus fish!
Do not thaw in the sieve under running water, as important nutrients would be washed out!
Leftover food should be sucked out of the aquarium after 10 minutes at the latest, otherwise the water quality will be affected.

Again and again one hears the saying: “Why should I feed beef heart? There are no cattle swimming in the Amazon either!”
CORRECTION: There are also no STENDKER discus fish swimming in the Amazon and our animals differ greatly in terms of keeping conditions, color and eating habits from wild catches found in the Amazon or from other bred fish.

STENDKER discus food
Beef heart feed contaminates the water quality considerably.
CORRECTION: That's true if you overfeed or if you thaw our food incorrectly. High protein content etc. enables balanced feeding. 3 meals a day with our Good Heart are completely sufficient (even for our SMALL ones from the 3rd week of life).
The evening before, please gently defrost the daily portion in the fridge in a fresh storage box with a lid. For discus fish (SMALL or LARGE) feed approx. 1-1 ½ blisters (5-7.5 g) per meal. Feeding too much makes our discus fish SICK!

Cold-blooded animals cannot digest meat from warm-blooded animals (beef heart).
CORRECTION: Our discu fish only get our COMPLETE feed solution based on beef heart 3 times a day, from the 3rd week of life. You can see from our animals how good our STENDKER Good Heart is for them.

For beef heart feeding, the water temperature must be at least 30 degrees to digest this feed.
CORRECTION: Even at a keeping temperature of 27 degrees, our animals can process our beef heart feed well.

Feeding beef heart mixture 3 times a day is not varied.
CORRECTION: Our STENDKER Good Heart discus food consists of over 100 components, vitamins, minerals, vegetable components and much more and not just pure beef heart. It has been used successfully as a complete feed in our breeding operation for over 50 years. From the third week of life, all our STENDKER discus fish receive our complete food only 3 times a day, which contains everything our discus fish need to grow up healthy. Actually, our animals need NOTHING OTHER than being fed 3 times a day with our Good Heart, but live food or frozen natural food can also be fed to offer your discus DIFFERENCE.

Please do not feed red mosquito larvae, tubifex or uncooked mussel meat, as this can even make our animals sick. Live food can be seen as BONBON and also a nice ALTERNATION, but does not replace a full meal with our Good Heart.

Small discus fish need to be fed at least 7 meals a day.
CORRECTION: This can be the case with live food. Feeding our STENDKER discus fish 3 times a day with our STENDKER Good Heart is sufficient from the third week of life (1 cm size).
Overfeeding is even harmful to our animals. The bones/bones don't grow as fast, so it can lead to a shortened gill cover or a crooked backbone.
We strive for natural growth in our STENDKER discus fish and achieve this by feeding our Good Heart 3 times a day. Our discus fish are then, as in the wild, fully grown at the age of about 2 years.
Successful breeders around the world feed beef heart mixtures because this ensures optimal nutrition for the discus fish.

All of our publications on the subject of discus fish relate exclusively to our STENDKER discus fish. Other conditions may apply to wild catches or fish from other discus breeders.