Cichlid Foods... What do you feed?

[RDTigger]

Starting a Mbuna community and reading all the different foods out there.. I will have yellow labs, Acei and other herbivore and mellow Haps/Mbuna..

So what cichlids do you keep and what foods work best...



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[echoofformless]

The labs are mostly vegetarian with some meat supplement. The others are pretty much all vegetarian.

The problem is that almost every last commercial food that is marketed for vegetarian cichlids has a lot of meat in it. I feel one would do best to find the few that are all veggie. (Good luck.) Or instead feed stuff like finely chopped nori, romaine lettuce, spinach, etc. It's been a while since I kept Africans so perhaps there are a lot more commercial choices now that aren't so meaty.

[RDTigger]

This Hikari Cichlid Excel looks promising for vegetarians..but the main ingredient is...fish meal. lol

Guaranteed Analysis Crude Protein 35% min. Crude Fat 4% min. Crude Fiber 3% max. Moisture 10% max. Ash 13% max. Phosphorus 0.8% min. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flour, wheat-germ meal, flaked corn (processed), spirulina, dehydrated alfalfa meal, krill meal, brewer's dried yeast, enzyme, astaxanthin, garlic, DL-methionine, monosodium glutamate, and vitamins and minerals including stabilized Vitamin C.

Additives Vitamin A 18,000 IU/kg Vitamin C 94 mg/kg Vitamin D3 3,700 IU/kg Vitamin E 110 mg/kg Copper 17 mg/kg Feeding Suggestions: Feed two to four times daily the amount your fish will eat within a few minutes. Remove all remaining food after the feeding period to avoid over-feeding and the water quality problems associated with this action.

[kianna]

I have a peaceful community african tank. I mainly use Hikaris Cichlid gold and Cichlid staple along with a Spirulina flake. If the fish are young/small watch the pellet size. Hikari makes 4 sizes of pellets I think and some are too big. For some variety I add on occasion algae wafers, zucchini, spinach and other flaked/pelleted foods.

[RDTigger]

I have a peaceful community african tank. I mainly use Hikaris Cichlid gold and Cichlid staple along with a Spirulina flake. If the fish are young/small watch the pellet size. Hikari makes 4 sizes of pellets I think and some are too big. For some variety I add on occasion algae wafers, zucchini, spinach and other flaked/pelleted foods.

Yea, far too many foods labeled "cichlid" are for carnivores... There are so many different types of "cichlid" that it is just too general..

[excuzzzeme]

I feed my elec yellows and others Hikari Cichlid Gold and Ken's supreme flake. Occasional frozen brine shrimp or decapsulated baby brines shrimp eggs. Tank bred and raised will generally accept almost any foods offered.

[blue2fyre]

I feed my mbuna NLS cichlid formula and Ken's veggie flakes. They also get fresh veggies every once in a while.

[Pittbull]

New life spectrum and HBH super Veggie 8 is a good balance and the HBH super veggie first ingredient is spirulina but there are a lot of combo's you can choose, spirulina with the first ingredient as fish meal is junk with very little veggie to offer..

As for fish foods go try to maintain the foods with the ingredients and percentages in mind stick to foods with the percentages around 46% protein anything higher could cause bloat and the first ingredients in most foods as they transcend is your quality of foods and supplements, the further form the top the lower the quality..

[DrgRcr]

NLS 1mm cichlid formula, Nutrafin Max Spirulina Flake, and occasionally broken up Omega 1 veggie wafers. IMO, for mbuna, it seems as though NLS and Dainichi are the 2 most highly regarded foods. I was told this when I bought my stock so I went with NLS because I can't find Dainichi around here.

[fish lover 561]

I feed mines flakes and they even jump over it and go crazy but every now and then they eat the algea that falls into the water from my cascade fiter lol

[Winterymix]

I feed the HBH Super Veggie Blend 8 flakes. (First ingredient is spirulina) Occasional fresh veggies, and Hikari cichlid gold pellets.

[Istanbul_Kop]

I feed NLS and flake with extra Spirulina.

[jgulecas]

My P. saulosi love Omega One Veggie Rounds. It has fish meal in it but spirulina and kelp are the first listed ingredients. I break them up and distribute the pieces among the dominant males' "territories." Putting just one wafer in starts a fight.

Ken's Veggie Flake is pretty much all veggie, I believe. I have tried it and they ate it but not with the same enthusiasm as the Omega One. It is relatively inexpensive.

Mine do like zucchini. Not much luck with Romaine lettuce. They eat Java moss like spaghetti.

I have not tried the others.

I feed my Mbuna their veggies first, and then put in some meaty food for other species in the tank, which will not touch the veggie food. The Mbuna will eat it, but I figure that they at least got their roughage.

[efors]

My mbunas eat Ocean Nutrition Spirulina flakes 3 days a week, Dainichi Color Supreme 1mm pellets 2 days a week and freeze dried mysis shrimp 1 day a week. They fast on Sunday.

[jgulecas]

When I first posted on this, I had just gotten the Ken's Veggie Flake. After getting used to it, my mbuna really love this stuff! It is my new staple food. Highly recommended!

[RDTigger]

When I first posted on this, I had just gotten the Ken's Veggie Flake. After getting used to it, my mbuna really love this stuff! It is my new staple food. Highly recommended!


would love feedback...

I am about to try out the new Aqueon Algae Rounds/Cichlid Sticks..

Everything in the stores goes with fishmeal, not veggies

[blue2fyre]

My mbuna go crazy over Ken's veggie flakes.

[mike dunagan]

NLS all the way here