What are you guys feeding cichlids that need veggies?
- Thread starter Kayzee
- Start date
many of the pellets and sinking food specified as pleco/catfish work great for the veggie needs my sevs,chocolates, and geos
I've kept a lot of severums over a lot of years-- they like veggies, but with a good staple pellet they hardly need them.
Also:
1) You can overdo veggies to the point they don't get a good balance of nutrients, including sufficient protein. In fact, you can inadvertently create a bad combination of plant based products for fish-- link.
2) Don't treat them like goldfish or algae eaters. They don't need algae wafers or veggie pellets. Including some good quality algae or veggie foods is ok, but check the ingredients, there are a lot of products out there labeled as 'algae' or 'veggie' foods with an abundance of grains, starches, and other cheap ingredients, and they won't bring out the best in them.
NLS isn't the only food I like or use, but ime severums like it and look good on it, including NLS Thera-A.
Also:
1) You can overdo veggies to the point they don't get a good balance of nutrients, including sufficient protein. In fact, you can inadvertently create a bad combination of plant based products for fish-- link.
2) Don't treat them like goldfish or algae eaters. They don't need algae wafers or veggie pellets. Including some good quality algae or veggie foods is ok, but check the ingredients, there are a lot of products out there labeled as 'algae' or 'veggie' foods with an abundance of grains, starches, and other cheap ingredients, and they won't bring out the best in them.
NLS isn't the only food I like or use, but ime severums like it and look good on it, including NLS Thera-A.
...And if you're asking yourself why so many people say they need a lot of veggies in their diet, or why they recommend feeding them algae wafers, etc, then also ask yourself why a lot of people think severums are slow growers.
One thing no body has mentioned is feeding frequency, most carnivores fish have a large stomach and short intestine so they can take a large amount of food in one go, most herbivores have a small stomach and long intestine so they need smaller more frequent meals. So feeding a adult Parachromis once every other day maybe a good feeding strategy trying to do the same to a fish that has evolved as a grazer you may find that it cannot digest the amount of food it needs in one sitting.
