A healthy diet???

[convict94]

at the moment i am feeding my fish little chunks of brine shrimp and bloodworms, is this healthy. my fish love the diet they have right now but the only reason i ask is because a lot of people on here say that they feed bloodworms as a snack once in a long while. I also feed my fish hikari cichlid gold pellets also maybe once or twice a week.

 

[convict94]

bump?

 

[Mystic]

It depends on what kind of fish you have, really. Cichlids need vegetable matter in their diet, so you'll need to supplement the bloodworms and shrimp with some type of cichlid pellet/flake that contains a good amount of vegetable matter or you can even add a chunk of fresh vegetable now and then, like spinach or zucchini. Also, brine shrimp have very little nutritional value unless you're feeding newly hatched live ones (with the egg sack still intact), so you may want to think about switching to mysis shrimp. I've found that, more often than not, cichlids are assumed to be carnivorous due to their aggressive nature, but many of the most aggressive specimens are actually vegetarians. Even the omnivore/insectivore members of the group need to have a partially vegetarian diet, and should not be fed mammalian protein like beefheart. If you really want to be nit-picky, do a little online research on each fish you have and what food types they prefer, then try to feed a variety of food types that will compliment the needs of all the fish in the tank. Also, the rainbow shark and certainly the pleco are herbivores, and if you don't have enough green algae in the tank to keep the pleco healthy then you need to supplement with algae pellets now and then.

So long story short, the food you have now isn't bad for them (though as mentioned the brine shrimp isn't good either... it's like iceburg lettuce), but it also isn't meeting the needs of the fish. Do keep up with the bloodworms at least now and then, though, even if you switch to a pellet.

Hope that helps!

 

[convict94]

thanks, i used to feed them hikari cichlid gold pellets with ocean nutrition cichlid omni formula but i ran out and when i went to my lfs they were all out of what i needed. and i do drop in an algea pellet every day for my pleco in the morning. so your telling me pretty much that i should stick with this diet and just variate it more with vegetables, mysis shrimp, and beefheart? and one more Q. this willsound like im a beginner but, how do you feed plecos and fish zuchini? do you squez out the juices? and are oranges ok for pleco's? what are some other fruits and vegetables that i can feed my fish?

 

[Mystic]

Definately do not feed beefheart, as omnivore/herbivore digestive tracts aren't built to handle such heavy protein.

As for the rest, honestly I would do a mix of a high quality cichlid pellet (I used New Life Spectrum when I had cichlids, but the one you were using is good too) as the base of the diet, then supplement with bloodworms and/or mysis shrimp maybe a couple times a week, as well as some real vegetables every now and then (sometimes if fish are used to pellets and meaty foods they don't go for the raw veggies, but some really seem to like it).

To feed a leafy vegetable, you can either buy one of those algae clips they sell for saltwater aquariums and just stick that in the tank and clip the spinach or algae (or whatever) into it, or you can just rubber band it to a rock or whatever. The same goes for slices of zucchini... just rubber band a piece of the vegetable to a rock or something in the tank. I have never heard of anyone ever feeding fruit to their fish, so I would hesitate to give advice on that matter, but I would imagine there are probably some fruits that might be ok. I wouldn't do a slice of orange though, just because of the acidity and it possibly affecting the water chemistry. I do know that cucumber, zucchini, peas, romaine lettuce, spinach and carrots are all good. It's best to soften the harder veggies a bit before you feed the fish, either by freezing them and then allowing them to thaw, or by steaming.

I know that severums usually like fresh veggies. The rest of your cichlids seem for the most part to be more omnivorous, so I can't say whether they will really like them or not, but it's not a bad idea to give it a try. Just remember to take out anything they don't eat so it doesn't decay into the water.

 

[Acer]

I feed my goldfish a varied diet. Aside for the pellets, I feed:
- Banana - slice and drop in
- Orange slices (clip to tank)
- Lettuce, kale, spinach... freeze for 20 minutes so it softens when you put it in the water. Canned spinach is soft and can be fed as is.
- Broccoli - steamed
- Peas... from a can or frozen. Just microwave them in water to soften them up.
- Zucchini and cucumber

It may take a few tries for the fish to become use to the new food. It is fun feeding fresh fruits and veggies, and good to give them a wide array of food.

I also feed mysis shrimp... awesome stuff!

 

[Kitiara]

I have seen pumpkin and cucumber attached to driftwood with rubber bands at my LFS. These offerings normally have at least one catfish of some sort munching on it.