Cichlid diet

[neutrino]

+1 to RD's post above, and especially the following are exactly my thoughts:

So a guy like Don, with the size of his operation, isn't going to be feeding NLS, or Northfin, or Omega, or anything close. He's feeding a "high protein" food, most likely designed for trout, mixed with a bulk commercial koi food. That makes perfect business sense, and the fish would also be consuming natural pond algae, insects, larvae, etc, as a supplement.

Waste isn't near the factor in a large vat, or natural pond setting, but is certainly a concern to most hobbyists, and the larger the fiber content, the more solid waste that will be produced.

The underlined portion, likely as much as anything else, is a factor in why fish in some Florida farms might thrive imo, similar to the reasons a hobbyist breeder may find his fish do very well in a pond in the summer.

I lived in Florida for five years, became friendly with a couple of the fish farmers and that's exactly among the reasons some of them preferred outside vats to inside tanks and why those far enough north (and/or small enough) to worry about bringing them in during the winter were anxious to get them back outside as soon as they could. That and because they felt it lowered their feed bill a bit for the same reasons mentioned above.

And speaking of University of Florida, they publish online a lot of fish care and management information, discussing some of the same things we're talking about here, including best sources of and proportions of protein in fish diet (Link) and advangates of aquatic vs. cereal and similar terrestrial plant based protein (Link).

Not trying to give a lecture here, whatever works for someone is their own deal and up to them. Also, water management is equally as important as what you feed ime. But it's information that's out there, often well known in aquaculture science, and, speaking for myself, it influences what I feed or don't.

 

[Lawlboom]

Thank for you all for the excellent information! I don't think there is any other forum with such a well informed member base!

 

[Frank Castle]

I've been a bad aquarist and never really spent much time reading about diet. I do supplement my Uaru with frozen "emerald cuisine" or other algae type foods. Aside from that it's just been dump hikari gold and walk away.

The good news is now I have something new to read up on.

I use the Hikari Bio-gold as a staple, but I vary the diets with over a dozen foods as well, emerald entrée is also included in my arsenal as well as fresh romaine or red/green-leaf lettuce or spinach. For the gluttonous catfish and like-species, I keep a jar of Koi pellets handy just because they eat the equivalent of a BALEEN WHALE when it comes to pellets and I don't feel like watching a fish that doesn't NEED it, consume 30 pellets at a time of food that costs $30/lb. TBH, sometimes certain catfish won't even come out for food until the scent of the Koi pellets hits the water.

I have been to Don's breeding facility in Fl, and have seen his breeders. The colors, health and sizes were magnificent, so I'd have a hard time arguing with his methods. And many of the species he offers are detritivores, and/or primarily vegetable and fruit eaters in nature (Vieja, or the Cincelichthys (newly created pearsei/bocourti genus).
I found feeding those cichlids, and other non-predatory species high vitamin koi foods and leafy greens worked well for me too.


as an aside
I just read an interesting study about the way Parjachromis dovii feed in nature, while as juveniles the main portion of stomach contents found were small fish, as adults a majority of stomach contents were insects.
http://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-77442000000200019

HA!!!! Dandelion greens!!! I used to do these for my Bearded Dragons, I gotta try this for my fish

 

[Lawlboom]

I'm having a difficult time feeding my Dovii. My male is around 10inches and the female is about 7. This is why I was looking up diets in the first place. They hardly eat the hikari food sticks. They spit them out. My other fish hardly touch them and if I don't scoop the uneaten sticks out quickly, the smell is like hot garbage. Even now, for fish so large they do not eat very much. The male might take down eight to ten medium pellets. The female about the same.

I've cut up market shrimp, they barely eat those. I've cut up talapia, cod. So I just gave up if that's all they want to eat then that's all they want to eat.

 

[Frank Castle]

I'm having a difficult time feeding my Dovii. My male is around 10inches and the female is about 7. This is why I was looking up diets in the first place. They hardly eat the hikari food sticks. They spit them out. My other fish hardly touch them and if I don't scoop the uneaten sticks out quickly, the smell is like hot garbage. Even now, for fish so large they do not eat very much. The male might take down eight to ten medium pellets. The female about the same.

I've cut up market shrimp, they barely eat those. I've cut up talapia, cod. So I just gave up if that's all they want to eat then that's all they want to eat.

I do frozen clams strips, clams on the 1/2-shell, frozen silversides, tilapia, beefheart, bloodworms, earthworms, mealworms, freeze-dried krill, fresh shrimp, cod, squid, LIVE CRICKETS (hint hint), Dubia Roaches, a variety of pellets and flakes, and a variety of veggies.

Best bet, try live feeder insects for the Dovii....my Jags and JDs always favored them - I mean DESTROYED them w/ no hesitation, just beware they will jump right out of the water for the insects once they realize how much they like them. Dust them w/ powdered vitamins for extra nutrients, I like ZooMed Herptivite/Reptivite and just feed a few at a time so the dust doesn't start to dissolve in the water

 

[Lawlboom]

I thought about Crickets and earthworms. Now that they are eating pellets, and eating pellets in front of me I'm a little hesitant. When I first got them they wouldn't eat with me in front of the tank. I'd hate to have to restart the process.

 

[Frank Castle]

I thought about Crickets and earthworms. Now that they are eating pellets, and eating pellets in front of me I'm a little hesitant. When I first got them they wouldn't eat with me in front of the tank. I'd hate to have to restart the process.

put it like this - I've NEVER seen a captive fish smash any prey or food item the way they nail crickets and as far as Earthworms, if it wasn't for earthworms my Lima shovelnose would have starved itself to death by now. If you own fish and don't include these 2 things in their diet, you and the fish are both missing out. Watching a 12" Jag jump out of your tank because he's gotten to the point he can anticipate when the crickets leave the bag is pretty badass

 

[RD.]

Now that they are eating pellets, and eating pellets in front of me I'm a little hesitant.

As you should be. IMO the LAST thing that you want to do is feed a somewhat finicky fish, feeder crickets. Lacking in nutrients, and a sure fire way to convince your fish that its food should be alive and moving before it eats.

Personally I would try switching to a different pellet staple that is more readily accepted, and keep on doing what you are doing.

 

[Frank Castle]

As you should be. IMO the LAST thing that you want to do is feed a somewhat finicky fish, feeder crickets. Lacking in nutrients, and a sure fire way to convince your fish that its food should be alive and moving before it eats.

Personally I would try switching to a different pellet staple that is more readily accepted, and keep on doing what you are doing.

Yea, but he's going to be dusting them with a power-pack of vita-dust....you still think it's a bad idea?

 

[Lawlboom]

Something live might bring them back to only accepting live foods