I recently got 2 psittacus juveniles (about 4" each). They don't take pellets well, (I'm not sure if the other fish are too aggressive of eaters for them and are scaring them away or what) so I'm wondering what is best to supplement the pellets with. The profile on cichlid-forum says their herbivores but other articles I've read say carnivore or omnivore. Which is it? I notice they do pick at the zucchini I put in there a lot. I may switch it up and try some different pellets too, see if they take to those any better. Right now it's a mix of Dainichi, Ocean Nutrition veggie, and then some higher protein pellets I got at an auction (ingredients looked decent, I may just scrap them and go with NLS though).
Best diet for H. psittacus?
- Thread starter Lab_Rat
- Start date
Mine "hit" Tetra cichlid sticks pretty hard, as far as psittacus go. Kidding, they are very "deliberate" eaters, at least my pair are, they eyeball the food for a period of time before they take it, so a floating food works best (vs. sinking) for me. They liked the stick more than pellets so I've stuck with them. They refuse krill and mysis.
Ok, thanks. The deliberate eaters part is what is throwing me, I'm used to cichlids that eat first ask questions later and hit the pellets hard. I'll have to find some floating ones since I mostly feed sinking food.
For long-term you want to have them on a good mix of pellets. I did not find them to be herbivores. They left the plants alone and didn't pay much attention to romaine lettuce. But they did suck down earthworms like spaghetti...
The 4 I have (5-6") all take cichlid gold well and love my home made gelatin based food I make for my rays. That consists of tilapia, shrimp, smelt, massivore, sinking carnivore, spectrum, garlic and multi vitamins. I got them about 6 weeks ago (maybe a little longer) and they were only around 3" so they are growing very quickly! No signs of pairing off yet but hoping soon.
Mine goes for everything and eats from top to bottom of the water column. Lately he's been loving the 7.5mm nls pellets, kens flake, kens earthworm sticks and live earthworms.
I picked up some floating Hikari pellets and they're still not going for them. I think the other fish scare them away. I've tried scattering food throughout the tank but at feeding time the psittacus look interested then quickly retreat to the driftwood. Now they do attack the zucchini I put in there, moreso than any of the other fish I have in there (even the sevs). I'm not even sure how to try target feeding them since they're so shy at feeding time. At least they're eating the zucchini, maybe I'll try hanging a prawn in the clip for them to pick at (though I'm sure the others would destroy it before the psittacus get a chance to eat it).