A balanced diet for south american cichlids

Discussion in 'Cichlids' started by PappaBear, Mar 7, 2012.

  1. PappaBear

    PappaBear

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    Hi all!

    After a recent thread on illness in angels due to lack of roughage in their diet, I want to lift my game regarding the diet I am providing my south american cichlids (angels and apistogrammas).

    Currently they are fed as follows:

    Twice a day a mixture of flakes and granules (Omega One flakes and Tetra Prima granules)
    Twice a week I replace the afternoon flakes and granules with bloodworm, and a further 2 times a week I replace it with bs

    How is this diet? I want to add mysis as well? What do you guys suggest?

    Thanks!
     
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  3. firemanmuzz

    firemanmuzz

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    take a gander at the thread on feeding in ask the professor,it a must read and pretty informative.
     
  4. Sean J

    Sean J

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    A varied diet of good quality foods is a must. But depending on the species, this is a big variable. Like an adult Oscar wont really eat freshly hatched brine shrimp. But it will take beef heart. A Dwarf cichlid wont take big chunks of food.

    A good balanced diet of foods is crucial in keeping fish happy and healthy. Also, adding vitamins into the food will also help boost immune systems. There is a Fish multivitamin called Aquabiovit. It's made by Aquamedic. Aqua Medic aquabiovit 100 ml -Aquaristic shop

    Its a brilliant product and it's a great way to give your fish that little extra boost.

    As far as diet for Smaller cichlids goes, I would definitely recommend the Professors Dried Brine Shrimp Flakes. High quality flake food is really important. It forms the stable diet of fish. Giving them treats like Frozen Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, Mosquito Larvae, Daphnia, etc are also really beneficial as well. The more natural foods your fish have, the better their diet.

    It's the same as if you would eat rice crispies every day for all your meals. You'd soon realize that your body wont be able to sustain itself long term.

    Personally, I use these foods:

    Flake food and Pellets:
    Ocean Nutrition Community Flakes
    Omega One (I forget the name)
    Sera Vipagran

    Frozen:
    Ocean Nutrition SUPER SHRIMP (It's frozen brine shrimp, loaded with extra nutrition)
    Ocean Nutrition Bloodworm
    Ocean Nutrition Cyclops

    Ocean Nutrition make some of the finest frozen foods that I have used.

    Also, personally, I would NEVER feed any fish tubifex worms. Not ever. Too many risks of introducing infections and nasty pathogens into your tank.

    As far as live foods go, we all know about Brine shrimp. The benefits are fantastic. They are easy to hatch, and really good for your fish when newly hatched.
    Microworms are also really good for your fish. So are earthworms. There are loads of great live foods out there. If you used as many as you could, you could have the healthiest fish out there!

    Hope this helps.

    Sean
     
  5. Dirk

    Dirk Dwarf Catfish

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    Hi Guys,

    I am in full agreement with what has been suggested here, but I want to reiterate what Sean has advised here. The addition of even a small amount of freshly hatched brine shrimps on an ongoing basis for all dwarf cichlids is extremely valuable. I feed mine a small amount of this all the time and raise all fry on freshly hatched bs. I have a hatchery running all the time. So without a good supply of bs eggs I would not be able to keep them.

    Kind regards,

    Dirk
     

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