Chocolate cichlid is a glutton

[TheLorax]

Just wanted to share about my chocolate cichlid. He's the most gluttonous eater out of all my fish! He's currently 3 inches and I've had him for about 4 weeks. When I put feeder minnows in my tank, he was the only fish to chase them down and eat them, even though it took him forever to swallow each one, while my other cichlids could eat them in one bite. Similar effect with crickets, he'll have one sticking halfway out of his mouth and still be nipping at the other crickets, unable to wait until he has room to eat another. He just ate about 5 large ones and is still going! Is it possible for him to hurt himself by eating food it takes 20 minutes to swallow? And is this common for chocolate cichlids or maybe just because he's still a juvenile?

Here he is eating a big cricket.

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[cichliddave]

At his current rate he's going to be a beast. What size tank, how often do you feed them, how many tank mates? Maybe he feels his is in competition for food, or just greedy.

 

[TheLorax]

It's a 135, and tankmates include a JD, two severums, 3 Heckellis, 2 T. Maculipinnis and a senegal bichir. Th e other fish aren't too greedy about food, though, and nobody really picks on him. I have the automatic feeder set to feed them NLS pellets 4 times a day but it doesn't feed much, they eat it in like 1 minute. I feed a larger amount of pellets about once a day, and generally only feed them crickets once every week or two. I think he's just greedy, but I hope he stays this way. My JD ate a lot at his size, but now, at 6", he is shy and hardly eats.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

I've found them to be very oscar-like in their willingness to feed IME. Particularly if kept with similarly temperament fish