ilikefish

How crucial is it to feed cichlids cichlid food staple? I attempted to feed them the staple but they wouldn't eat it. I threw in some tropical flake and its a feeding frenzy. Is this healthy for them orrr should I starve them and then force them to eat cichlid food staple?

Thanks

aquarist48

Hello Ilikefish. I would suggest a varied diet. There are some dishes that you can even make at home. Do a search for "cichlid food" and see what you come up with. Too, I like to feed freeze dried krill, algae waffers, cichlid sticks, pellets, peas.
Ken

btate617

They probably didn't eat it as it was something new, something they have not seen. Keep trying.
Like said a varied diet would work best, but you need something as a staple whatever you pick. The shrimp, peas, worms, etc are a treat not a staple. So find something that will be used as your everyday food would be my advise.

Brian

nater

My Jack Dempseys will not eat any floating type cichlid food. I have tried several different brands and sizes. I have tried it dry. I have tried soaking it first with and without garlic and they just won't have it. Mine, like yours, love tetramin crisps and flake food as well as blood worms and peas. They pretty much like any food that doesn't float. My Jacks are having no problem growing and staying healthy. Maybe your cichlids just don't like that kind of food and my philosophy is feed them what they like and they will be happy.

ilikefish

k thanks

Camacho

i keep seeing peas? do you boil them first what kind of peas? green peas?.... sorry still new to the cichlid hobby

LuckyLooock

Hi ilikefish & Camacho,

My Cichlids are used to eat pieces of viennas, bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, green peas (ALL FROZEN)

Do not feed to often, I feed every 5 days only (but also vary no feeding periods)

Follow *Brian & Ken's* advice - works for me & my water babies.

Shawnie

Hi luckyulooock ..what are viennas?
and im going to respectfully disagree about only feeding them once a week ...cichlids needs to eat daily IMO .....

LuckyLooock

Yo Shawnie,

Viennas AKA hotdog sausage. I feed this to my OSCAR

I understand that you disagree with me wrt my feeding periods. I have learned this through many aqua experts here, but I can assure you that I don't starve my guys & girls. That was only my

If I am not mistaking this site is for helping one another.

Of coarse I would like to be proven wrong for sure.

Many thanks for your most valued input & best rgrds.

Till next time

Shawnie

ahh I thought so about the vienna! but wasnt sure...again im going to disagree on those as well...the salt content of those are not good for the oscar at all..although im sure he will eat it..they eat anything

this site is great for helping and advising but members will disagree with eachother and offer their own advice...its not about being proven wrong or right, its about learning daily from one another

CHoffman

I agree with Shawnie. I feed all my fish twice a day and sometimes even 3 times a day..lol..Not huge meals but they get lots of variety and special treats too. I just think as fish as humans. We could live off of one meal a week but i like breakfast lunch and dinner everyday day..lol. Ok I skip breakfast quite often but still..lol.. Also I agree with the salt content, it too high.

On the peas though i just buy unsalted peas in a can. Depending on what size fish you have you cut them up. For a betta I cut them up the size of pellets. for a bigger fish like my jacks and angles I just them up a little bigger. They gobble them down.

I feed my cichlid tank, beefheart flake, frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, spirunlina with garlic and paprika flakes, plankton/krill/spirulina flakes, cichlid mix, and spirulina wafers. All from Kens. They are pigs..lol.

btate617

I am going to agree with LuckyLooock to a point.

I try to feed all my mature cichlids every other day, fry twice daily. The key word here for me is mature adult cichlids. Two reasons for me. First my opinion is they don't need it, and second is water quality. However I will say feeding more you can over come water quality issues with more maintenance. And I don't mean I feed less so I can slack off on water changes, i only use sponge filters in all tanks so I really can't cheat my water changes. I believe I have very healthy fish with the method I use, others may not.

I will tell you why I stopped feeding daily with adults. Back when I had African cichlids I had a colony of 10 Burundi fronts. I ended up with 4M/6F. I was complaining once to a buddy that I wished my fronts would breed more, he laughed and said how often do you feed? I said I feed them being defensive...... he goes no stop feeding them... give them something once or twice a week and thats it. He says if you feed them all the time all they think about is their next meal from you and they don't think about breeding. I thought he was crazy but being who he is I thought what the heck I will try it. So I seperated the group, 2M/3F in each tank. I feed one tank daily like always and the other tank I only gave food to in the evenings on Monday and Thursday. I am not saying he was right but the tank with less food I got close to double the fry from in an 8 month period. Just something to think about.

Also now that my Gymnogeophagus are going through their cool down I only feed them every third to forth day, however I will admit this is because of the cold water their body works slower and so on. But normally they eat ever 2nd day so....
Just my opinion on the topic.

Brian

LuckyLooock

Good day Brian, CHoffman & Shawnie,

WOW this site is the ......, thanks for all the excellent posts. Like what Brian said wrt lessing meals 4 less water works. I do water changes (25%) every week nevertheless. Also my experience was when they got fed every day, they were a bit lazy. My Red Oscar & JD fought more and when I reduced feeding periods & my guys & girls are a bit more active and less aggresive with one another.

But what pickels my brain is the JD & Oscar wanted to brawl only with one another, but not with the smaller guys in the tanks, but the fighting stopped almost 100% after I stopped with the daily feeding.

SHAWNIE, you are spot on in your saying *this site is great for helping and advising but members will disagree with eachother and offer their own advice...its not about being proven wrong or right, its about learning daily from one another*

Thanks again all,

Tobias

aquarist48

Hello. As for feeding peas.... they are high in protein and act as a laxative for constipated fish. Too, it's good to feed them to your fish once a week or so to keep the regular and my fish love 'em once they realized it was food. I use frozen peas, I blanch them (boiled for just a minute. Then I cool them down, slice them into appropriate size and remove the skin.

I have reduced my feeding schedule to 1 time a day compared to 2 times a day. I've really noticed a difference in my water clarity from day to day.
Ken

LuckyLooock

Hi Ken,

I also agree to feed peas, I my case i buy raw, unprocessed peas. Frozen peas without boiling will not affect water clarity. When I put the peas in my pleco goes bezerk. They love their peas, unlike me I hate eating peas myself LOL

aquarist48

Good morning Lucky. All of my fish have been eating their peas, even my snails!
I love peas myself
When I mentioned reducing my feeding schedule this was for all food in general and not just the peas. I really just like to boil them for a minute to thaw them.
My Pleco goes nuts over zucchini!
Ken

Nick Goody

I feed bloodworms or flake everyday for my smaller Cichlids, but I only feed the Oscar every other day now that he's nearing adult size. He still snacks on the flake and bloodworms, but he's generally not quick enough. The smaller guys hoover it all up before he gets a look in!

LuckyLooock

Hi ilikefish,

Futhermore to Cichlid Food.

Try to get hold of earthworms - live earthworms. My Cichlids goes gagga over their wormies. Please remember to cut them in half before feeding time (still alive) if you dont devide them them sink to the bottom in burrow into your gravel & believe me its * difficult to get them out. Some sort of dissapearing act.