firemouth trouble

[joe loach]

i have a firemouth that will not grow and looks a bit off in color.it eats fine but is not keeping up with the other two i have that are growing and are developing colors that give a german ram a run for the money.i feed frozen foods like blood worms,brine shrimp,plankton and a cichlid growth formula.flake is omega one veggi and chichlid formula.they are housed in a 90 gallon with three green severum as tank mates,all get along fine.my p.h. is 6.5 hardness about 15 temp is 78.so i'm lost in need of advice to what may be a problem.i have never kept south or middle american cichlids i have kept double trunk elephant nose fish for the last seven years when my last one passed,heart broken i decided to go a south cichlid.so i could go for some expert advice.thank you in advance.

 

[grannylvsfish]

well, I have 4 fire mouths, and one is much smaller the the other 3. in fact as small as my ram. there in the 55 gallon tank, one in the 29 and its not like there is not plenty of room to grow. maybe like mine its just genetic, maybe its a small female. I believe mine is.
want a few more fire mouths ? mine fight like women LOL!!!

 

[MySpace Mike]

I would suggest something with a bit more protein for the FireMouths. When I had FireMouths my male had the coloring of an F1 FireMouth. I fed him HBH super soft pellets, small cichlid stix, and jumbo cichlid stix all mixed together. Then I gave them brine shrimp once a week as a treat.

The small and jumbo cichlid stix were crushed before mixing them in with the HBH pellets. And their coloring was amazing due to this diet. I also feed my female Jaguar cichlid the same mix of food, and she has bright vibrant coloring, and has grown dramatically since I got her 6 months ago.

Reason for a higher protein diet is because South and Central American Cichlids are carnivores and eat meaty foods that have a good amount of protein, unlike african cichlid which are herbivores and eat plant matter based foods.

 

[Ruben Tolon]

i also find firemouths to be slow growing compared to most common CA cichlids

 

[BadDogsPa]

My JD and GT have almost doubled the growth of my Firemouth on the same foods

 

[grannylvsfish]

I also feed HBH pellets the fish love them! and my fish have really colored up. b ut I have one that has not and has not grown much either. in 6 months he is half the size of the other firemouths.

 

[MySpace Mike]

could be a runt is all. smaller in size, and grows a lot slower compared to the others.