What do you feed your Andinoacara?

[TheFishDodo]

My biseriatus did fine on prepared foods. I feed a small micropellet as a staple as well as a spirulina flake, and occasionally they'd get frozen bloodworms or freeze-dried blackworms. Like most Andinoacara they are not very picky about food.

Thats good to know I'm tryong to shy away from flake food because of the emperor tetras in the tank but it seems like a combination of NLS will be the best or homemade food.

Edit: What size are the pellets im trying to decide between 1 and 2 mm in the end.

 

[TigerTalon1]

A high protein diet is not actually good for a lot of cichlids so when someone asks a question about a particular species than try and be specific to that species. If you don’t know about the species than don’t comment.

What cichlids are you talking about? He asked what I feed my Andinocara. Rivulatus is in the Andinocara genus. I know that a high protein diet isn’t good for Mbuna because they can develop bloat from a high protein diet due to their herbivorous nature . I find it funny how you tell me that “if I don’t know about the species don’t comment” but you don’t even say what type of cichlids a high protein diet “is not actually good for” you say “a lot of cichlids”.

 

[HybridFinatic]

What cichlids are you talking about?

A lot of cichlids actually. many cichlids are prone to bloat are are prone to bloat like the Nandopsis genus. Doesn’t really count but flowerhorn never do good on a high protein diet. I personally don’t go to high on the protein with any of my cichlids because of things like bloat and other diseases because the mix of freeze dried, frozen food, and too high protein pellet is too much on their gut which then lowers the immune system to which will lead to more disease. Plus a couple different high quality 30-40% pellets will cover all the nutritional needs of any cichlids and it’s really unnecessary to add all the extra protein. I know a lot of people promote high protein. But those are the type of people who recommend you feed your fish beef heart and other animal products. Don’t believe everything you hear. Their is a lot of misinformation out their so take whatever you hear as a second opinion.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

I feed my riv NLS thera+a pellets almost exclusively because the stubborn b*tch won't eat anything else.
She has beautiful colours though and I assume that's in part to having a good diet for most of her life.

She's a very pretty fish, here's a pic from a while back (I'm not a great photographer):

 

[TheFishDodo]

I feed my riv NLS thera+a pellets almost exclusively because the stubborn b*tch won't eat anything else.
She has beautiful colours though and I assume that's in part to having a good diet for most of her life.

She's a very pretty fish, here's a pic from a while back (I'm not a great photographer):
View attachment 1355069

Holy Hell that is one beautiful Silver Saum. But that is good to know so thera+a and algae max it is.

 

[neutrino]

I did a little research on what was found in the stomach contents in any of the Andinoacara studied, although there wasn't any specific info I could find in biseriatus, although it was generally considered omnivorous, there was some data on latifrons.
The stomach held mostly veggie matter, followed by fish remains, then detritus, and a small amount of insect remains.
To me this indicates any well made pellet should do, although if it were me, I'd go with one with a high spirulina content, to mimic the high amount of veggie mater found in the studied individuals.

Same for Andinoacara pulcher:
http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0122-02682016000100010

Vegetable remains was the most frequent group (63.8%) and the prey with greatest composition in weight (33.5%), while Rest of fishes was the most abundant group (34.7%). It was observed that in low and rising waters, fishes was the most consumed prey, while that in high and falling waters the most consumed prey was vegetable remains. Vegetable remains, detritus and fishes were food groups of secondary relative importance, while Insects and Others were circumstantial or incidental groups. Conclusions. The results achieved indicate that Cocobolo is a fish with omnivores feeding habits with a preference for vegetable remains.

If you researched Symphysodon (discus), which some people think are such big carnivores, you'd find exactly the same. Few cichlids require a special diet not generally satisfied by a quality pellet (or flake). In some cases, it may take something other than their usual pellet to get them to spawn, or some fish might be finicky and difficult to get on to dry foods.

Also, if you research it, protein requirements for most cichlids are similar or fall within a limited range, under 50% of total diet. Extra or "high" protein does little for them except produce more nitrogen waste, can actually slow growth above their optimal range. This is why some discus keepers think you have to do daily massive water changes, it's the way they're feeding and keeping them, not the fish themselves, that makes it necessary (I kept discus myself for some years).

My point being most cichlids have similar general nutritional requirements.

 

[neutrino]

I feed my riv NLS thera+a pellets almost exclusively because the stubborn b*tch won't eat anything else.
She has beautiful colours though and I assume that's in part to having a good diet for most of her life.

She's a very pretty fish, here's a pic from a while back (I'm not a great photographer):
View attachment 1355069

Nice. Speaks for itself regarding your food and water (the other important component for great color). Heros species also look good on Thera-A ime.

 

[duanes]

It is very interesting to me, that many aquarists, believe feeder fish are the most important food items for many cichlids, and in reality very few are actually piscivores.
Of the Central Americans, only Parachromis and Petania are predominantly fish eaters.
Most Centrals and South Americans are omnivorous, getting their protein from insects, their larvae, worms, and crustaceans, and balanced with vegetation such as algae and leaf litter.
A number of genera, such as Vieja, and Cincelichthys are predominantly vegetarian, feeding on algae, fruit, and seeds in nature, and occasional insects and easy to catch fry.
Most cichlids cannot turn down an easy protein meal, and this can become problematic in aquariums if heavy amounts are protein are fed, and not balanced out with the detritus and vegetation used to clean out their guts (hence tendency to bloat).

In the case of C bocourti and pearsei, although when young, eat and require plenty of protein, but with age should be given and switched over to mostly plant based foods.
To me its obvious looking at mouth shape, and type of teeth what dietary requirements might be.

fish eater and carnivore above, plant eater below

and below a Madagascan snail eater, note the can opener like teeth for extracting snail flesh from the shell

 

[TheFishDodo]

It is very interesting to me, that many aquarists, believe feeder fish are the most important food items for many cichlids, and in reality very few are actually piscivores.
Of the Central Americans, only Parachromis and Petania are predominantly fish eaters.
Most Centrals and South Americans are omnivorous, getting their protein from insects, their larvae, worms, and crustaceans, and balanced with vegetation such as algae and leaf litter.
A number of genera, such as Vieja, and Cincelichthys are predominantly vegetarian, feeding on algae, fruit, and seeds in nature, and occasional insects and easy to catch fry.
Most cichlids cannot turn down an easy protein meal, and this can become problematic in aquariums if heavy amounts are protein are fed, and not balanced out with the detritus and vegetation used to clean out their guts (hence tendency to bloat).

In the case of C bocourti and pearsei, although when young, eat and require plenty of protein, but with age should be given and switched over to mostly plant based foods.
To me its obvious looking at mouth shape, and type of teeth what dietary requirements might be.

fish eater and carnivore above, plant eater below

and below a Madagascan snail eater, note the can opener like teeth for extracting snail flesh from the shell

I wonder where the idea of feeder fish came from? It seems like there are very few small cichlids which are piscivorious in nature. There are some of the dwarf pikes which prey on apistogramma fry but they also seem to consume a good ammount of aufwuchs. Also regarding piscivorious fish in the wild don't they still get a good ammount of plant and organic matter from the stomachs of the fish they eat. Talking about this reminded me of a video of a guy ranting about how great Northfin was for his Africans because of the high fish protein content. The video makes it seem like there is a common misconception that fish want high protein in their diet all of the time.

On a side note that snail eating cichlid seems like he could bite a finger pretty deep.

 

[TigerTalon1]

I feed my riv NLS thera+a pellets almost exclusively because the stubborn b*tch won't eat anything else.
She has beautiful colours though and I assume that's in part to having a good diet for most of her life.

She's a very pretty fish, here's a pic from a while back (I'm not a great photographer):
View attachment 1355069

Niceee makes me want a silver saum GT