Best Cichlid Food

[Glenstorm]

I have a Malawi community tank that I need to buy food for. I have been using Wardley flakes b/c that's all the fish store had for cichlids. I am placing an order at Big Al's and was completely overwhelmed by all the choices. So what are people's opinions about this.

Flakes or pellets?
particular brands?

thanks

[DarthV]

What species of fish in particular? Many mbuna are strict vegetarians...that would mean a diet heavy on spirulina flakes or sticks.

[VoodooChild]

I really like Hikari's Cichlid Gold pellets. The fish go nuts for it and it's color enhancing formula is much better than Tetra's (at least through my experience). I prefer pellets due to the larger size of my Africans and it's a bit cleaner, however I have given them a bit of the Ocean Nutrion Reef Flake that I'd feed my Amazonians (before I took down the tank) and my marine fish. They really seem to like that. If it's herbivorous you're buying for, Ocean Nutrion's Formula 1 and 2 are very good products that I like alot. I also incorporate blood worms, brine shrimp, silversides, and krill into the diet occasionaly, but Hikari is definantly the staple. That should be balanced out enough so that you don't have to worry about the welfare of your flora-eating fish.

[peifc]

Here is a website of home made fish recipe. It is great. You can give it a try.

http://www.cichlidae.com/juanmi/Peces/default.html#food

Aikido gave me that link.

[Glenstorm]

I Have:

4 Psuedotropheus, 1 Labidochromis, 1 Nimbochromis,



Originally posted by DarthV
What species of fish in particular? Many mbuna are strict vegetarians...that would mean a diet heavy on spirulina flakes or sticks.

[DarthV]

Well your pseudotropheus are hardcore vegetarians...the labidochromis is omnivorus but would do better with more vegetarian food and and the nimbochromis is a predator... nasty combination for trying to have a simple diet! I would suggest that you return the nimbochromis since it does get decently large...

If you keep the yellow lab and the pseudotropheus fish, then I'd go with a heavy dose of spirulina and a good mix of fresh/frozen vegetables. 2 good names for food would be Hikari and New Life Spectrum...another option would be to order flake or pellets from kensfish.com. Or make your own food.

[Glenstorm]

Originally posted by DarthV
I would suggest that you return the nimbochromis since it does get decently large...


I am under the impression that my 75G tank is large enough for the Nimbochromis. I used to have twice as many fish in here but lost half to sickness. Right now I am dithering with giant danios. Not an optimum situation but all my wallet can support.

[valerie]

For my african tank(i have peacock,haps, lab.perlmutt and rusties) I feed omega one flakes( super veggie,veggie and color enhancer flakes), hakari cichlid excel pellets, hakari cichlid gold pellets and frozen brine shrimp.

I like Pellets, they keep the water cleaner as flakes seems to break up into tiny bits. But i find flakes more convient to use as sometimes i don't want to wait while I pres soak the pellets(very important for afirncas as dry peelets can cause bloating..

[DarthV]

Originally posted by Glenstorm


I am under the impression that my 75G tank is large enough for the Nimbochromis. I used to have twice as many fish in here but lost half to sickness. Right now I am dithering with giant danios. Not an optimum situation but all my wallet can support.

The 75gal is large enough, but the dietary needs of all your fish species are very different. The nimbo's are predatory and probably like to have a lot of protein. The pseudo's are vegetarian and their digestive tract can't handle the amount of protein that the nimbo's will need. You will end up shortchanging one of the species on dietary needs... pseudos will get Malawi Bloat if they get too much protein. I'm not sure what the effects of a veggie only diet would have on the nimbo's.

[dave76]

My bet is starvation, or he will turn on the other fish in the tank and try to eat them.

[Glenstorm]

Originally posted by dave76
My bet is starvation, or he will turn on the other fish in the tank and try to eat them.

Well so far he seems to be happy being a vegetarian. He also is not very aggressive with the other tankmates. As it stands the Orange Blotched Psuedotropheus is the most dominant in the tank. Perhaps it because the Nimbo is significantly smaller than the others.

[VoodooChild]

The fish have to be quite small, even for a large mouthed predator like a Nimbo. As long as you mix it up, say 2-3 feedings of staple pellet, and 2-3 feedings of brine shrimp, blood worms, and spiriluna, you should be fine. The only thing there that's hard on the mbunas is the blood worms, and one light feeding a week won't hurt them. The same applies for the spiriluna for the Nimbochromis.

[125gJoe]

Tetra Color Bits.

[Glenstorm]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. It was a helpful to hear all the different variables that I have been oblivious about.