Vit C and discus

Hi Prof

Hoped you could give some more info on discus's need for Vit C?
Also on appropriate methods of giving them Vit C.

Regards
Gerhard

 

@Vis - have you seen this bit of info from Prof ?

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?2572-Discus-Issue&p=35920&viewfull=1#post35920

Might answer question 1

Later Ferdie

 

Hi Gerhard and Ferdie,

Thanks Ferdie for saving me the trouble of having to explain this again. All fishes need vitamin C because their immune systems (and ours) require vitamin C to fight off any attacks from all disease causing organisms. However, where you first notice the effect of a vitamin C shortage in discus is that they get hole-in-the-head disease which is caused by protozoan organisms which occur in all discus as a gut organism, not a parasite, but simply an organism that finds a protective home there. The immune system of discus keeps these organisms under control, but short them on vitamin C and your problems start: stringy faeces, lack of appetite, dark colour and sitting in corners until they just go thin and die. Nowadays we do not see full blown hole-in-the-head often with real holes because there is some vitamin C in many foods but mostly it is not enough.

The viramin C in the diet can come from natural sources such as green veggies that have been added to beafheart mixes (such as is in my SV2000 mix) or in some granules. Tetrabits has too little vitamin C in it. Vitamin C itself acts as an antioxidant if added to food and that is the main reason why it is added, not because it is an additive for your fishes. However food suppliers are the first to point out the vitamin C in their foods as a selling out. In most granulates this is too low. So, you need to concentrate on what the vitamin C content is of your foods and you need to feed it often to your fishes. Vitamin C also cannot be stored in the body so you need to feed it regularly and not just once a week or some irregular frequency. I feed my discus my vitamin and vegetable enriched heefheart mix, SV 2000, every second day for this very reason and they get fed my high vitamin C content granules every day.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Are these the gold star granules you sell?

 

Yes, all the gold star granules have a vitamin C content of 1100 mg per kg.

 

Ok cool, then its good I ordered those

Would it be fine to desolve Vit C and have pellets soak in it before feeding?
Would it be of any use to the discus?