what to feed baby cichla

[bill88]

hey i just bought 2 baby cichla, they dont seem to be eating any of the foods i tried, so far i've tried earthworms, frozen bloodworm, bits of mussel and smelt. only thing they ate so far was a diamond tetra(runt), can anyone help? oh yeh i bought the cichla on saturday.

[ceeej31]

feeder guppies should do the trick

[yoimb0b]

feed the guppies. They will grow big and fast.

[Hawkfish3.0]

I've had luck with frozen mysis shrimp. Feeders always work. If you're worried about the health of you fish, try breeding your own guppies for feeders if you can.

[bill88]

the problem with feeders is that u cant buy them in the uk.

[chefrific]

Live brine shrimp got mine going quick, then on to small rosy red minnows and guppies. If your LFS doesn't have live brine, you can order do it yourself kits really really cheap, and they are easy to brew up. Hope this helps.

[ceeej31]

no live feeders:screwy: weird. then just keep trying blood worms until they take them

[bill88]

yeh feeders are banned in the uk, thats what my lfs told me

[sdadlani]

I just picked up two babies as well..... I tried feeders but they wouldn't touch them..... I tried guppies and they loved them.... Looks like I have to grow them a bit until I can put them on feeders

[xaznkewlguyx]

i kept mine on live bloodworms till they were 3in.

[itsalmosteasy]

Did you do any research before you got them? Young cichla are really hard to get to take 'dead' food. Can you get ghost shrimp? Look around for someone with an overpopulated guppy tank. Baby convicts work well too. What is the temp of you tank?

[Hawkfish3.0]

no live feeders:screwy: weird. then just keep trying blood worms until they take them

It's not weird. It's just that the UK has a law prohibiting the sale of live animals for use as food for other animals. PETA has a deathgrip on the UK, apparently. :grinno:

[Opiate]

blodoworm, beefheart, prawns, pellets, feeders, my juvies ate all these

[gekkecichla]

the problem with feeders is that u cant buy them in the uk.

of course you can:)lol your local lfs is bull****ting you around, these fish need guppies, guppies and guppies, thats the only thing that helps, keep on goning with the guppies until they are about 15 cm then you can also give bigger fish and finally theyll eat anything, but if you dont get the guppies theyll die , for sure , so go to the lfs and buy some guppies like 50 of them,
feed like 35 of em in a daily schedule and the 15 set them aside and breed them theyll breed like hell, still you; have to buy guppies once a week but in a few weeks like 8 or 9 weeks youl have lots and lots of guppies:D
oh and dude do some rescearch before you buy a fish, if you dont want to feed them live, do not torture them give them to someone who does take proper care of them

[quintas14]

It`s not a case of people not wanting to buy live food in the uk, it`s against the law to feed any live animal to anything.....
And over here a guppy is about £1.80 which is about $4 ish so buying 50 isn`t that easy for some people.
And alot of people go to their lfs and are told absolute crap by the people that work there, people like me and alot of other people on this site will always look the fish up on the net first but some don`t.
I mean if the fish shop says it`s ok to feed the fish bloodworm for instanse then the person will take it as gospel and buy it not knowing that the fish probably hasn`t eaten for a week for that very reason.
It`s when something like this happens that people start thinking mmm maybe i shouldn`t just go with what the worker says and do a little research myself.
I`m not *****ing i just think that if someone says that you should do the homework on the fish before you buy it then they should do their homework as to the laws govening a country instead of just saying that the law can`t be true because that`s what the fish needs......


BILL88

Some people on here have found that kneeling infront of the tank and flicking food in will get the fish eating as the bass think it`s live and moving because of that. Also as itsalmosteasy says you can go to almost any fish shop a get a brineshrimp hatchery that just sits in the corner of your tank and the brine shrimp grow real fast so you`ll always have some live food. http://www.onlineaquariumstore.com/acatalog/Sera_Artemia_Breeding_Kit.html
That one is real cheap and i don`t think it even needs to go into your tank either. Good luck with the fish mate...

[islander671]

I'm surprised they don't take bloodworms..lol..that stuff is like candy. I started mine on bloodworms at a little over an inch. now at over 2 inches all take trout chow 500 floating pellets.

[channarox]

i fed mine on guppies til he reached about 6 inches.
keep trying bloodworms.

[bill88]

haha i did research actually and i almost kept pbass before but had no problems feeding them. i put sum platies in the tank as dithers and they chase them all the time. will keep trying blood worm and i'll go to the lfs and buy river shrimp for them 2mrw. 50 guppies would cost quite alot as quintas14 (http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=30714) stated over here. brineshrimp is quite a good idea... thanks!

[BadDogsPa]

keep trying bloodworms,or breed your own feeders..Liveberers or Convicts breed redily

[Morledzep]

i've NEVER had trouble getting a peacock bass to eat.. not when mine were babies, and most certainly not now. and i've NEVER fed live food.

i fed them frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and chopped up frozen krill when they were tiny. And frozen whole krill, chopped market shrimp, chopped chicken hearts, and chopped chicken breast when they were medium sized.. and now that they can eat most everything whole except the beef heart and chicken breasts they eat what they can whole and i don't chop anything any more, i just cut it into hunks.

[Tongue33]

haha i did research actually and i almost kept pbass before but had no problems feeding them. i put sum platies in the tank as dithers and they chase them all the time. will keep trying blood worm and i'll go to the lfs and buy river shrimp for them 2mrw. 50 guppies would cost quite alot as quintas14 (http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=30714) stated over here. brineshrimp is quite a good idea... thanks!


You can try azoo arow sticks ;)

Also how much are the river shrimp?

[quintas14]

"NEW" buy approx 40 to 50 Live river shrimps for a fiver + post and packaging £2.00 total £7.00 sent 1st class post "NEW" "NEW" "NEW" "NEW"

Thats the cheapest i can find them, and that`s a copy/paste from the web site that sells them.

[BloodredOscar]

when mine was a baby i fed him carnivorus pelets and as he grew i fed em live food

[itsalmosteasy]

haha i did research actually and i almost kept pbass before but had no problems feeding them. i put sum platies in the tank as dithers and they chase them all the time. will keep trying blood worm and i'll go to the lfs and buy river shrimp for them 2mrw. 50 guppies would cost quite alot as quintas14 (http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=30714) stated over here. brineshrimp is quite a good idea... thanks!

What do you mean you "almost kept pbass before"?:irked:

[chefrific]

It always amazes me how this website is for asking questions, and when someone does, a few like to abuse the person for not "doing research" or for not being God's expert on that fish, disregard those guys.
This website is for getting the right answer, not for criticism of someone who genuinely is concerned and needs encouragement and answers. That being said good luck to you and let me know if you get the live brine to work.

[bill88]

i mean "i also". i have now gotten them to eat bloodworm. will keep on trying other foods

[itsalmosteasy]

That makes more sense. That's good they are eating for you. I'm not trying to abuse you. I simply asked if you did your research. I think people need to not rely on forums for info. There are a lot of sites out there with good info when it comes to things like fishkeeping.

[Hawkfish3.0]

That makes more sense. That's good they are eating for you. I'm not trying to abuse you. I simply asked if you did your research. I think people need to not rely on forums for info. There are a lot of sites out there with good info when it comes to things like fishkeeping.

This being one of those sites, IMO.

The only way to truly research an animal or it's behavior would be to observe the animal and take notes and make comparisons....

So on and so on. It's quite a scientific process. Google is not scientific. :irked:

Collecting information and doing research are quite different. It's good to get as much information as possible. However, the only problem is that when you "research" on the internet, you have no way of knowing whether the information you are reading is legitimate or absolute crap.

Good for you for asking the question! By asking, you can make a decision based on a consensus of aquarists, not just one person's opinion.