Blood Red Parrot Food

I'm currently cycling my tank but want to start getting ready when I buy my new blood parrots. What food should I buy and how / how often do you feed them?

Ive had small community fish which get fed twice a day flake food only so not really experienced with these fish.

Thanks in advance!

 

I feed mine small cichlid pellets, (a few per day), frozen shrimp w/spirulina maybe once a week, fresh zucchini, some Bug Bites.

 

I mainly feed HikarI Blood Red Parrot (= floating) and HikarI Cichlid Gold sinking. Both are pellets.
Sometimes I feed Repashy (but that is when I have some left over from the the other tank) or clam/shrimp/red blood worms.
Another thing I feed once a week is shelled peas (slightly cooked), to prevent swim blather problems.

To my opinion the Cichlid Gold is a bit more messy, bits of debris floating around while they eat. It could be that that pellet still is a tad bit large for them.

When young I feed 3 times a day for max growth but also do twice a week 50% water changes to remove things we can't measure like growth hormones that could cause them to become stunted. More or less the way you would do with a school of young Angelfish or Discus.

When older I start feeding less. For 3 blood parrots I feed as much I can grab between thumb, index finger and middle finger. I don't use the rule 'feed what they can eat in 3 minutes' or something like that. They are always hungry and have ferocious appetite. I call them little piggies.

On other reason to feed them often when young is that they learn 'you=food' and that might make them less shy faster.

Don't be disappointed if they dart away when they see you or when you come closer to the tank. It can take weeks, even months to get used to you and the surroundings.

 

Will make sure to get a few different selections of food. Thanks!

 

Will make sure to get a few different selections of food. Thanks!

I feed mine freeze dried krill every day.