Best food for quick growth?

[cubano]

what are your opinions on foods that promote the fastes growth in fish? mainly cichlids and catfish?

[HomerJay]

Frozen bloodworms seem to make my fish grow pretty quickly.

[travelinman1969]

Not sure on the cichlids but small earthworms will get the cats going fast. The cichlids would probably love em too. Make sure you get em for fish. Don't get em from your yard. Brine shrimp is a good one too.

[cubano]

why do you say dont get them from your yard?

[travelinman1969]

Chemicals from fertilizers and plain man made crap in the soil. I made that mistake once, and once is all it took. Lost 2 beautiful pictus cats that way. I don't even use fertilizer.

[wantsome48091]

i agree small earth worms work great. i use them with my pike cichlids firemouths and cats. worms are realy high in protien. i usualy get them from my local tackle shop. but if your fish are to small to eat earth worms i d sugest tetra growth flakes

[valerie]

What sort of cichlids are we talking about? Higher protein foods usually put on growth the fastest but in some cases(certain african cichlids) can't handle the higher protein foods.

[Cearbhaill]

I use California Blackworms (http://www.aquaticfoods.com/intros.html) for my Discus- and you oughta see the cories and shrimp go after 'em! Everybody loves them.

[Tim Bo]

If you feed with worms, make sure they are well rinsed and kept in 'clean' conditions!

[125gJoe]

I need to mention Tetra Color Bits...
They sink slowly so top, middle, and bottom feeders get some.
My fish love the Color Bits...

[Cearbhaill]

If you feed with worms, make sure they are well rinsed and kept in 'clean' conditions!
They get rinsed once a day :cool:

[resk]

in addition to the specific brand or type of food you choose to feed your fish, also remember that variety is a very good thing

feed your fish a variety of live / frozen / freeze dried / flake / vegetables

be consistent with your rotation

the fish will often tell you what they want more or less of by watching their day to day behaviour

obviously only those foods that are good for your particular fish's diet

i just started using this frozen stuff called

"carnivore minced life line"

it comes in a square package comprised split into little pink cubes.
this is becoming a favorite of my cichlids and clown loaches, and is very protein rich

[somefinnfishy]

the life line stuff is great stuff.
I feed lots of live black and glass worms like a 1/2 lb a week.
For africans spiritunalla (sp?) or kelp are the holy grail

[Gulp]

Stupid question of the day from me.....

When using frozen food, do you feed the fish the food while it is still frozen......or do you thaw it out? My wife went to Petsmart the other day and they convinced her to buy this $10 pack of frozen food (assorted blocks) and said it would be great for a 9" oscar. The box doesn't say if I should thaw it or not.......but common sense seems to tell me I should. But then......if I thaw it, I am sure it's going to fall apart. :confused: I've never used frozen foods......so I am a dummy when it comes to this department. :D

[somefinnfishy]

I have never thawed anything I feed.
Try trout pellets for those oscars.

[travelinman1969]

Gulp, on your oscar, try feeding him shrimp and chicken. Raw. I get frozen raw shrimp and thaw em out for about an hour and then peel em, cut em into bite size pieces and feed. Probably 1 every other day would be good for him. It's mainly for feeding my arowana, but the oscars love em too. I also feed him chicken sometimes, raw. They love that too, but it's a bit more messy. Your new cat will eat any leftovers.