My son feeds a blend of peas, head on shrimp, spirlina, fish vitamins(?), brewers yeast all blended which he mixes with knox gelatin and freezes on a cookie sheet then bags into sandwich bags. This is very reasonable priced food (after buying the vitamins) and lasts forever. He has 9 tanks of cichlids and makes a tray of food a month, he also feeds finely chopped beef heart, from a local aboitor (sic) that raises their own beef without hormones, dried krill, blood worms and cichlid pellets, these guys grow at a remarkable rate and the colours they show are fantastic! He also has made his own melafix and primafix, so for pennies he maintains 2 liter bottle of each and always has some on hand. If only he could get a recipe for Prime, LOL this hobby would cost him next to nothing.