Bichirs and veggie based foods

[Breeze]

Hey all,

Just wondering if anyone had any input on Polys eating foods that have some or part of their composition being plant or veggie based.

My Ornate and Delhezi both love Hikari Cichlid Gold, and the ingredients read: fish meal, wheat bran, brewers dried yeast, flaked corn, etc.

Good, bad, indifferent, let me know.

Thanks all!

 

[tlindsey]

Hey all,

Just wondering if anyone had any input on Polys eating foods that have some or part of their composition being plant or veggie based.

My Ornate and Delhezi both love Hikari Cichlid Gold, and the ingredients read: fish meal, wheat bran, brewers dried yeast, flaked corn, etc.

Good, bad, indifferent, let me know.

Thanks all!

I personally feed a variety of pellet brands to my Polys. Some of the pellets include ingredients such as Spirulina which is excellent for them.

 

[sevs and sajicas for me]

My bichirs love nls thera a. Don't get me wrong I think they'd prefer a chunk of shrimp or tilapia or even hikari carnivore pellets, but they gobble up the nls thera a as well.

 

[RemainVayne]

The only pellet I regularly feed at every meal is Ken's premium veggie sticks, which is for my Pearsei and Flagtail.

I now have a problem with my giraffe cats and polys eating the food before the Pearsei and Flagtail can. Oh and my snook too. All fish are healthy, plump, and growing.

I don't love ALL the ingredients in this ken's food, but it's got a lot of healthy greens for my fish and they more readily accept it than other veggie-based foods.

 

[kno4te]

I’ve added some crushed algae wafers and no probs.

 

[ZIPLOCKEDBRZ]

Mine also love algae wafers and shrimp of course.

 

[Breeze]

Excellent responses, you guys are great. I have polys in multiple tanks (5 at the moment) and differnt polys (obviously) like differnt food. Aside from the Hikari carnivore pellets, I feed them an array of frozen and meaty foods.

I try to mix it up as much as possible to ensure variation in their diets. Though it's worth noting that the only poly who absolutley LOVES a higher veggie diet is my 7" WC Delhezi. Hes all about the Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets and NorthFin Cichlid pellets. He'll even take a chunk or two out of the zucchini I put in there for the pelcos.

It's not that I "worry" persay, I just wanted to make sure these guys weren't just eating this stuff and not gaining from it at all. Spirulina and algae seem to be in alot of stuff and I know that beneficial regardless, just was really wondering about corn, wheat bran, etc in their diet.

Again, I love this forum. Thanks all

 

[Yaponchik]

I think you're all good mate, lucky you in fact, that you have them eating pellets. Hikari Carnivore and Massivore pellets contain spirulina, these are the two staples of their diets (although it's been very hard to make a lot of the wild caught ones transfer, I did have some success with others). Since they are carnivores, they will always have plant based meals in their diets, from the fish that they eat. So far, only my CBs actually eat algae wafers; none of my WCs even remotely touch them, not even pellet trained ones.

I would usually take out shrimp's intestinal tract and stuff it with crushed algae wafers. That's pretty much the only way for me to get some plants in their diets

 

[Breeze]

I think you're all good mate, lucky you in fact, that you have them eating pellets. Hikari Carnivore and Massivore pellets contain spirulina, these are the two staples of their diets (although it's been very hard to make a lot of the wild caught ones transfer, I did have some success with others). Since they are carnivores, they will always have plant based meals in their diets, from the fish that they eat. So far, only my CBs actually eat algae wafers; none of my WCs even remotely touch them, not even pellet trained ones.

I would usually take out shrimp's intestinal tract and stuff it with crushed algae wafers. That's pretty much the only way for me to get some plants in their diets

Ha! Stuffing the shrimp is great, I love novel ways of getting these picky guys to eat. Now dont get me wrong, most of my WC wont touch any pellet even hikari carnivore, which all of my TR gobble up. But for whatever reason, that Delhezi WC and Buettikoferi WC just love veggie heavy foods. All good imo, just love hearing what others have done on this front.

 

[RD.]

Since they are carnivores, they will always have plant based meals in their diets, from the fish that they eat

Bingo. IMO all fish, including those classified as carnivorous should consume some plant matter in their diet.

Spirulina and algae seem to be in alot of stuff and I know that beneficial regardless, just was really wondering about corn, wheat bran, etc in their diet.

There is a big difference between terrestrial based plant matter, and aquatic based plant matter. IMO, always best to feed aquatic based plant matter to fish, whenever possible. Some wheat etc as binding agents is ok, but the overall use of terrestrial based grains and plants should be limited in a food designed for fish, especially carnivorous fish. Science has proven that at least with most species of fish studied to date, when fed in excessive quantity terrestrial based plant matter can potentially cause health issues, especially if fed in a raw unprocessed state, due to the anti-nutritional matter found in the vast majority of terrestrial based plants