discus feeding

Question
hello two days ago I bought a heckel ninin discus from my local pet store. I think that is what the discus was called. any way I had some problems with him at first so I called the owner of the pet store and found out he was caught wild. So I was wondering what kind of food do discus eat and about how long do wild fish take to start eating if you know. If not I understand its probably not a normal question you would get thanks.

Answer
Hi Ezra
I'm afraid my knowledge of discus is limited, I've never owned them, after doing research on them years ago, I found they were a very sensitive fish.  I'm not sure on knowledge of them, so I'll give you a few links on them and their care.

First, the type of discus you have is called a Heckle it's scientific name is Symphysodon Heckel, which should help you find more info on them.  Here's a great site I found.  Has all kinds of info on there, including recipes for food:

http://www.discusnada.org/index.html

Since yours is wild caught, I would suggest trying to feed it some worms, either earthworms, mealworms, frozen and thawed out bloodworms.  I don't know any fish that'll turn their nose up at worms.  That's probably more closely related to what they eat in the wild.  Once he gets comfy, start rotating his food between frozen and thawed brine shrimp, some beefheart, and hopefully eventually he'll accept a good quality pellet food.  They mainly need a carnivorous/meaty diet, but be sure to vary it up so they won't only accept one type of food.  

As far as how long before it'll eat, I'm not sure.  He's probably really stressed from being removed from the wild, and transported around from tank to tank.  Keep trying to offer him some food, especially those ones I listed, and hopefully he'll start eating soon.  Wild caught fish can be a bit more difficult to keep for that very reason.

Another thing since it is wild caught, you need to make sure you're water parameters are very similar to what they're used to in the wild.  If you look on that link, they also talk about water changes and such.  I know discus are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and do require very low nitrates as well.  I remember reading some discus owners do daily water changes to keep the water quality good.  Being a wild caught fish, you may need to take this approach as well.  

I just pulled up a few more sites, this first one states that the one you have is the most difficult to keep lol :)

http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/discus/strains/index.html

http://www.aquaticcritter.com/Freshwater/raising_discus.htm

http://rockymountaindiscus.com/Discus_Fish_Filtration.htm

Hope that helps you out some.  Good luck with him, and just do lots of research on him to keep him healthy.  I know, at least here in the US, they're a rather expensive fish!  Hope he starts eating soon for you.  Let me know if you have more questions, I"ll try to help, but can't guarantee that I can :)

Christy