 | Beef heart should not be used as a sole
diet for Discus fish and we use 50%-60%
beefheart with vitamins and other
dried foods.
Here is what a beef heart looks like
fresh from the butchers. |
 | Beef heart fat or gristle left on the cubes will not be good for your Discus fish and may block the gut leading to constipation and death. It is also far easier to remove t he fat etc on large pieces of heart than on small cubes. |
 | To prepare the heart, a good very
sharp knife and chopping board
will be needed, with plenty of time
and a few pints waiting in the fridge
for when you have finished, this is
an essential ingredient and should
not be omitted. |
 | Start by slicing the heart in half,
then the two halves in to sizable
slices of three each. |
 | This leaves a reasonable
sized pieces to work with. |
 | Next start removing all sinew, arteries and fat. Take your time, it must all be removed leaving lean meat only, this is time consuming and must be done carefully, Here the outside fat of the heart is being removed. |
 | After all the heart slices are devoid
of fat, arteries and sinew |
 | Here are the slices ready to go into
the mincer. Wash thoroughly and
drain in a sieve. |
Here the slices are being put through the mincer. Take note, mincer! DO NOT use a liquidiser. A liquidiser will blitz the cubes into particles not of uniform size. This can create problems when it is added to the aquarium. Fine particles will be ignored by the fish and sink to the bottom. If using a substrate, there they will rot, causing bacteria blooms (cloudy water) and ammonia spikes if the filter bacteria cannot handle the load. |
 | The meat from the mincer is being collected in a clean oven dish from the wife's kitchen (she loves me for this). Yes it is fish food, but still pay attention to hygiene and treat it as if you were going to eat it. Here we are making a five heart mix, a large collection vessel makes for less mess. The heart must be passed through the grinder TWICE. |
 | Here are 1.5kg of FRESH peeled prawns or white fish meat which are draining after being washed I also add a few fresh mussels. There are no fixed ratios on weights, adjust to you own needs. They can be left out if you like. The prawns are added mainly to improve colouration of the Discus fish. This lot are going into the five heart mix. Pass the shrimps or prawns through the grinder. |
 | Here is 1 medium bag if frozen spinach which has been defrosted and all the water squeezed out. Again optional, some Discus keepers may not like to see this in the mix, however our fish eat it and I believe it provides roughage. Pass all this through the mincer. |
 | Here are the main ingredients in the collection vessel. The heart slices have gone through the mincer twice, the spinach and shrimp/ prawns / fish once. |
| Added to this five heart mix where 30ml of liquid baby multi vitamins. |
| Now squeeze one tube of garlic paste into the mix, this really stinks but does help keep infection at bay as garlic is known to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. |
 | Mix all the ingredients in the oven dish thoroughly and pass through the grinder once more. Do not bulk freeze medicated mixes but bag it is freezer bags in a flat sheet to allow you to break pieces off and defrost before feeding to your Discus Fish. |
You should now have a nice consistent mix looking as left. You know what as gone in it, you know the water content is very low and your kitchen is a mess.
Any frozen food that floats for a considerable length of time has a high water content. Not good for your pocket, or your fish, you are buying water! This mix will sink within seconds.
At this point you must prepare a binder to stop the mix disintegrating when added to the aquarium. Omit this stage at your peril! Fine particles of heart not bound correctly, floating around the aquarium, will impair water quality and may also cause a bacteria bloom! |
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Mix all the ingredients in the oven dish thoroughly and pass through the grinder once more.
Do not bulk freeze medicated mixes but bag it is freezer bags in a flat sheet to allow you to break pieces off and defrost before feeding to your Discus Fish. |
 | All that remains to do now is add the mix to re-sealable bags. Tip: After adding the mix to the bag, use a rolling pin to produce a nice thin sheet of beef heart mix around 4 mm thick. This makes it far easier to break off chunks for feeding when removed from the freezer.Fast freeze the beefheart sheets if you have the facility on your freezer. |
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