I have been feeding him small pieces of lettuce and other small greens cut up yet it seems he is tired of them. What else can I feed him? I have some cichlid flakes and cichlid floating food which I paid like 7 bucks a piece. Can I use these?
What to feed my red zebra?
- Thread starter Mantis_22
- Start date
by all means. they should make a good staple, and you can supplement with other treats every now and then.
You really have to be careful about feeding mbuna (which is what your red zebra is) generic 'cichlid food.' There are lots of different types of cichlids, some are primarily piscivorous, other are vegetarian. Food that is appropriate for an oscar won't be good for mbuna.
You want food that is low in protein and fat. Mbuna have long digestive tracts and rich foods seem to lead to a lot problems, including bloat. Safe prepared foods include algae (or spirulina) wafers and Hikari's Cichlid Excel. There is no better food, as a staple, than what you've been feeding: fresh veggies.
I've completely given up on feeding my mbuna flakes. They (esp. the faster, more aggressive fish) would gobble up all the flakes and wound up with a much higher rate of problems.
Good luck,
Jim
You want food that is low in protein and fat. Mbuna have long digestive tracts and rich foods seem to lead to a lot problems, including bloat. Safe prepared foods include algae (or spirulina) wafers and Hikari's Cichlid Excel. There is no better food, as a staple, than what you've been feeding: fresh veggies.
I've completely given up on feeding my mbuna flakes. They (esp. the faster, more aggressive fish) would gobble up all the flakes and wound up with a much higher rate of problems.
Good luck,
Jim
I agree with JSchmidt. "Cichlid" foods are usualy not the best for feeding mbuna, too high in fat and protein.
Find a good spirulina pellet or flake and make that the base of the diet. I use hikari excel and HBH graze flakes. You can also feed other pellets or flakes to supplement. I feed NLS pellets. I also feed frozen rbine every once and a while.
When i think of feeding my mbuna i usually do one feeding of a veggie based food(either veggie flakes/pelelts or fresh) and then the next time i do a smaller feeding of NLS. I try to stick to 2/3 veggies, 1/3 other. I have never had problems with bloat.
Find a good spirulina pellet or flake and make that the base of the diet. I use hikari excel and HBH graze flakes. You can also feed other pellets or flakes to supplement. I feed NLS pellets. I also feed frozen rbine every once and a while.
When i think of feeding my mbuna i usually do one feeding of a veggie based food(either veggie flakes/pelelts or fresh) and then the next time i do a smaller feeding of NLS. I try to stick to 2/3 veggies, 1/3 other. I have never had problems with bloat.
any links to these brands, there are no LFS in my area. By the way, this cichild has went through bloat and has full recovered. Thats why he is fed only greens. The name of the cichlid flakes I have now are called (Penn Plax) Pro Balance: Cichlid Flake with Amino Acid Additives. On the back here are the Nutrtion Facts.
-Crude Protein - min 45%
-Crude Fat - min 8%
-Crude Fiber- max 10%
-Moisture - max 8%
-Phosphorus- min .60%
-Phosphours - max .80%
-Ethoxyquin - 1.5mg/kg
-Vitamin A - 7250mg/kg
-Vitamin D3 - 850mg/kg
-Vitamin E - 250mg/kg
-Vitamin C - 800mg/kg
-Crude Protein - min 45%
-Crude Fat - min 8%
-Crude Fiber- max 10%
-Moisture - max 8%
-Phosphorus- min .60%
-Phosphours - max .80%
-Ethoxyquin - 1.5mg/kg
-Vitamin A - 7250mg/kg
-Vitamin D3 - 850mg/kg
-Vitamin E - 250mg/kg
-Vitamin C - 800mg/kg
how do you feed vegetables to red zebras????? i have tried just about everything and my zebras (5 adults and fry,fry and more fry in different tanks) won't touch them.any suggestions?
Mantis_22 said:
For a staple food, I prefer something with a bit less protein and fat. Hikari Cichlid Excel has 35% protein and 4% fat. Their algae wafers have the same proportion of fat and even less protein, 32%.
If you feed your fish mostly veggies and only use the Penn Plax flakes as an occasional (lightly-fed) treat, you should be OK.
Hikari products are available from most big online pet stores, like That Pet Place and Drs. Foster & Smith (http://www.thatpetplace.com/MainPro/IndexFish.aspx and http://www.drsfostersmith.com/).
HTH,
Jim
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