A bit of a change . . . . . . . .

[mandy-2007]

I'm feeling a bit repeatative with my fish tank. I Feed my cichlids flakes twice a day, and bloodworms once a week and clean the tank once a week.

I would love to make a vary in their diet, all they get is bloodworms,flakes and pellets.I was just wondering what else i could feed them and how i would prepare it. I have heard you can feed cichlids vegeatbles such as peas, and beaf heart, do i cook it, i know really stupid question.

So any types of food you feed ur cichlids and how you prepare it would be fantastic and i would be very grateful, and i think my fish would be too.

:) thanks

[reptileguy2727]

What cichlids do you have (species and size)? What exact foods are you feeding now (brand and variety)?

[mandy-2007]

i have: (get ready long list) (( this is a 120gallon)
4 crimson tides (olipuens or somthing like that)
1 texas
3 kribensis
3 convicts
1 jack dempsey
1 green terror
1 frontasa
1 firemouth
2 electric yellow
and 2 lion heads
all of my fish are at least 1 inch long some have reached 6-7 inches, i am aware that i am overstocked so please don't start have a go at me.
The products i use are:
flakes: aqua one cichlid
pellets: aqua one cichlid
bloodworms:bio-pure
I am also using some life spectrum tropical flake too.

[Xavi]

The electric yellow are vegetarians and should definately get veggie matter in their diet. Add some spirolina, all the fish will love it.

Try some krill and mysis shrimp also.

[Mocha Jive]

You can feed them Peas, cucumber, apples. The Peas I just put some frozen in a microwave bowl nuke it for about a minute cool them then remove the outside and mash them and give them a little at a time. Cucumber I cut a small one right down the middle then in half remove the seeds and then stick a baby spoon right under the skin to make it sink to the bottom. The apple I peel a wedge of apple and use a veggie clip and they come and nibble on them. I also feed earthworms which they love and I feel they are better then feeders. For the smaller ones just cut them up very tiny. The peas are also good for constipation and you can also try lettuce or spinach too.

[Weezer]

The electric yellow are vegetarians and should definately get veggie matter in their diet. Add some spirolina, all the fish will love it.

Try some krill and mysis shrimp also.

The Electric Yellow Lab needs both meaty foods and greens such as brine shrimp, blood worms, and quality flake or pellet food containing vegetable matter......:)

[reptileguy2727]

If it is an electric yellow lab it is a Lake Malawi cichlid and needs completely different water parameters than almost everything else. The Frontosas should have their own tank for size and water parameters.

NLS would be the best thing for all of them. The pellets will be much better than the flakes. It fills them up better and is not messy.

[Mocha Jive]

Yeah the New Life Spectrum is really good also brings out the colors really well. here is a list of foods I currently feed my fish
New Life Spectrum (Small Pellets)
Hikari Chichlid Gold (Larger Pellets for Oscar but I do break some up for the other fish to eat)
Algae Wafers
Frozen Brine Shrimp
Frozen Blood Worms
Apple
Cucumber
Peas
Earthworms

I tried lettuce but none of them were interested so I am going to try some Spinach next.

[jgavlock]

Krill for the win

[reptileguy2727]

Mocha Jive, I would feed Hikari Bio-Gold+ instead of gold. It has live beneficial bacteria in it that may actually help prevent HITH, in addition to assisting with digestion.

[Mocha Jive]

I will have to look for it at my LFS I don't remember seeing it but I will definitely find it. Thank you so much.