Feeding Cichlids

[mtdewlover]

Ok I have a question. :) My tank consists of...

Two Yellow Tailed Violets
Three Red Zebras
Two Colbalt Blues
Three something I can't think of their name
Three small yellow labs
One large pleco

I feed these guys cichlid pellets, and they much on the plecos algae tablets. Anything else I should feed these guys to keep them happy and healthy. I know some fish like veggies and things like that. They have all been living happily together for over a year now.

Thanks!

[Debra Mark]

Besides cichlid sticks, all our Africans eat Hikari pellets, flakes, beef heart, and shrimp. For a treat, they especially like frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms.

[Gulp]

I'm new to the African Cichlid scene, and my tanks only been stocked with them for a few weeks now.....but I've been feeding them the sinking cichlid pellets and cichlid flake food. We also through in frozen blood worm cubes at least once a week.

I was told by the guy at the LFS to throw in some chunks of zucchinii (spelling). I did.....they ignored it. I even let it float in the tank for over 36 hours and there was no sign of any of them touching it.

I hate to hijack your thread........but I'm also curious about how often everyone is feeding their A.C.'s. Everything I read says "three times a day, as much as they will eat in 3 minutes". That seems like a LOT of food. I feed my guys in the morning, and at night........but they NEVER stop eating. Some look like they are going pop after some of the feedings...........especially "Big Mama" the Evil Empress. I could feed them every hour of the day and I think they would still eat like pigs. :eek:

[Copper]

I keep mine on a staple of cichlid pellets, but think I will change to sticks once they are gone. I also rotate through a mixture of frozen beefheart, bloodworm, and brine shrimp, although I am also going to nix the brine shrimp on the next batch. Too small for them to really eat without littering the tank with leftovers. Also the occasional dose of spirulina. They have ignored the veggies I tried to put in, but I believe this is because they were not raised on them from the start. If you get some young'uns, and make veggies a part of their diet, you may have better luck than I did.

Gulp: I feed mine twice a day as much as they will eat in a few minutes, and I may fast them once a week, or just skip a meal here and there. Fish don't always have food readily available 24/7 in the wild. A lot of fish will eat and eat until the food is gone, but that does not mean that they SHOULD. That's why most will advise a time limit to feeding.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Well it all depends on what type of africans you have.

If you have MBUNA: be careful! These guys are vegetarians and eat algae off the rocks in the wild. Feeding them protien in thier diet will be deadly. Cichlid flake, pellets, bloodworms, beefheart, shrimp, krill, you name it they cant eat it! They will, but will suffer from bloat and eventually die. I feed mine Spiraluna algae flake. It is extrememly high in nutrients and its all they need. Supplement that with veggies and you'll be set. Once a week i will throw in a TEENY bit of regular cichlid flake just as a treat.

If you have HAPS: These guys live off small crustaceons so they can handle a lot more protien. They will readily accept cichlid flake and pellets with no problems, krill is a faveriot as well. Lotsa protien in thier diet is fine.

One of the main reasons its difficult to keep mbuna and haps together are thier differeing diets.

As for feeding times- once a day is perfect. Feed once, as much they can eat in about 5 minutes or so. Not too much! You will notice if they are full because thier bellies will expand. I feed once per day, 5 times a week. Every few days i skip a day. It is very critical that you do not overfeed your africans. Bloat is a major problem with them. Even on this strict feeding schedule i've had one salousi get bloat.


mtdewlover, all your cichlids you have there (well at least the ones you've stated) are mbuna, which means they are vegetarians. I would stop feeding the cichlid flake and go out and get some spiraluna flake. They like the algae tabs for a reason! The flake will be much easier for them to eat. You can once a week treat them with a bit of regular flake, but they dont really need it.


I hope that helps!
-Diana

[Gulp]

Well it all depends on what type of africans you have.

If you have MBUNA: be careful! These guys are vegetarians and eat algae off the rocks in the wild. Feeding them protien in thier diet will be deadly. Cichlid flake, pellets, bloodworms, beefheart, shrimp, krill, you name it they cant eat it! They will, but will suffer from bloat and eventually die. I feed mine Spiraluna algae flake. It is extrememly high in nutrients and its all they need. Supplement that with veggies and you'll be set. Once a week i will throw in a TEENY bit of regular cichlid flake just as a treat.
-Diana


Crap..... I didn't know that. :( Bad owner... :( I guess I will go out and buy some algae flake, but since they are mixed in with all the other cichlids, there's no way I can stop them from eating the other stuff. Guess I should have researched things a bit more before I started mixing all the species.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Yeah it happens a lot, its very hard to please both kinds when they are in the same tank together.

I have peacocks in with my mbuna and its a challenge to try and get enough protient to them without the mbuna eating it as well.

Fortunetly spiraluna is rich in nutrients and very healthy so the Haps can benefit from eating it, but its not thier natural food source.

[valerie]

I agree with Luvmykribs, stop feeding your mbuna bloodworms, beef heart and cichlid pellets. They need mostly veggie/algae based foods. For my mbuna i feed them a combo of nutrifin spirulina flakes and NLS pellets. I have omivorous mbuna though so they can handle the NLS.

For your fish i would do the main part of their diet spirulina/veggie foods with maybe the odd treat of frozen brine shrimp(once a week or so). They would also appreciate veggies. I give my mbuna spinach, zuchini(their fav.), and peas. I also sometimes give them nori. The seaweed used to make sushi. I buy the un seasoned nori and they go crazy for it.

A couple good foods for mbuna(not too much bad protien and fats) are:
nutrifin max spirulina
hakari cichlid excel
HBH graze
NLS(its not a veggie based food but used in moderation its great, nothing beats it IMO)

Becareful when choosing a spirulina flake. Some brands are very high in protein and dont' even have spirulina anywhere near the top of the ingredient list.

[JSchmidt]

I agree 100% with LuvMyKribs and Valerie. Low protein, low fat diets are a must for these fish. The Hikari Cichlid Excel pellets are great, although I have had to soak them in water, especially when introducing them to fish for the first time (else they eat too much). Algae wafers are OK, too, but you have to be careful if you have larger fish, as they'll try to eat them whole and they can get stuck in their throats.

Fresh veggies are also great. I'd avoid any meats, animal organs and the like, especially for mbuna.

Jim

[Gulp]

I'm going to have to say something to the guy at my LFS. :mad: When he sold me all the fish (about $150 worth of fish that day) he is the one that picked the food for me. I specifically asked if it would cover all the fish I was getting. The food was almost $20 itself and he said "it's the best". I'll see what kind it is when I get home. Maybe things aren't as bad as I'm thinking and he gave me the right stuff.

[valerie]

One big problem with feeding africans is that people think "cichlid pellets" are good for all cichlids. Not so, cichlid pellets are usually high in protein and fats and are supposed to be used for the CA/SA cichlids.

THis is why you really need to research what diet your fish needs before buying foods. The people at the LFS aren't always the most accurate with their info :D

[Gulp]

O.K. just checked what they sold me. I have "Omega One Natural Protein Formula African Cichlid Flakes" (has 44% crude protein), and "New Life Spectrum Cichild Forumla" pellets (has 34% crude protein).......both have pictures of African Cichlids on the label.

I will pick up some vegi food as this weekend.....

I know I should have done more research (and I thought I did a lot), but the guy we talked to seemed very knowledgable and knew most of the species names off the top of his head. You would think he would have sold us something that wouldn't kill the fish we were buying though, or at least warned us when we started mixing species. I don't mind paying the extra $2-$3 per fish to the LFS (over Petsmart).......but I guess I've come to expect them to know what they were talking about for that extra money. Oh well....."if you want it done right....." My bad.

[JSchmidt]

Here's the breakdown for Cichlid Excel pellets from Hikari, which set the standard for me...

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 35% Min.
Crude Fat 4% Min.
Crude Fiber 3% Max.
Moisture 10% Max.
Ash 10% Max.

I've fed the New Life Spectrum pellets and my cichlids tolerated them well, although you have to be very careful not to overfeed. I haven't used the Omega One flakes, but I'm a bit concerned about that much protein. I also stopped feeding flakes to my africans. I don't know what the problem was... overeating, maybe... but I had many more digestive-tract related problems (e.g., bloat) when feeding flakes. I have many fewer problems when feeding pellets.

HTH,
Jim

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Really! I prefer flakes myself, i find it a pain to have to soak the pellets. Did you switch brand when you switched from flake to pellet? Do you think that had something to do with it? How much pellet food do you feed... ie- 1 per fish? 2?

[valerie]

both have pictures of African Cichlids on the label.

Just because a food has pics of africans and says its made for africans doens't mean its good for africans :) Omega one is a pretty good food.Its a bit high in fats(can cause liver problems) but its still better then a lot of other foods out there. If you are going to use omega one i would suggest the veggie or super veggie formula. I used to use these before i switched to the nutrifin spirulina.

Reading food labels is tricky. Having a high protein % isn't necessarily bad. Pure spirulina flakes are very high in protien but its a "safe" protein for herbivores. Animal proteins are the ones that can cause probelms. Also look for foods low in fat.

If you want to do more research into choosing foods for africans(mbuna) then check out www.cichlid-forum.com's illness,health and nutrition forum. There has been long discussions about which formulas and brands are best. Their product review section shoudl also help out.

[JSchmidt]

Really! I prefer flakes myself, i find it a pain to have to soak the pellets. Did you switch brand when you switched from flake to pellet? Do you think that had something to do with it? How much pellet food do you feed... ie- 1 per fish? 2?

Actually, I started with flakes (spirulina) and had problems with the bigger, more aggressive fish eating most of the food. They seem to not eat the pellets as fast, and with sinking pellets, the smaller/slower fish get some, too.

I figure they each get 1-3 pellets, depending on the size I'm feeding.

Jim

[Gulp]

I bought some Nutrafin max spirulina algae flake food tonight and will give it a shot. I threw in a piece of romaine lettuce this morning before I left for work (and it was a complete leaf with NO holes...), and this is what's left tonight. I guess they were starving for some green stuff.......keep in mind all my fish are less than 1.5 inches, most less than 1 inch. :eek:

http://www.roadrashed.com/Aquarium%20pics/New%20arrangement/IMG_0316.jpg

The Nutrafin has 44% Crude Protein (but you already said it's the good kind), and 5% fat. Its ingredients listed in the order they appear on the container are Spriulina pacifica, fish meal, oat flour, P.D.P (predigested plankton) and a bunch of other stuff. The Omega One "Veggi Flakes" seemed to have more non-veggie stuff than veggi (basing the fact that they usually list the ingredients in order from most to least included in the mix). http://www.roadrashed.com/smilies/scratch.gif It didn't even list spirulina until the 5th or 6th ingredient (following salmon, krill, shrimp, crustaceans, and other meaty items). Oh well......we went with the Nutrafin because of that. http://www.roadrashed.com/smilies/huh.gif

[valerie]

The nutrifin max spirulina flakes have a fairly high protein content but thats because its 30% spirulina.

[JSchmidt]

And you pretty much can't go wrong with the fresh veggies! Looks like they like the lettuce.

Jim