I fed all of mine goldfish from 1-1.5" up to just like 4 days ago (they are 6-8" TL). Just barely got all of them to eat market shrimp. I still have one that is eating guppies but I will soon switch to goldfish.
gut loading means you feed the minnows a whole bunch of nutritious food like veggie flakes or bloodworms then you let your cichla eat the minnows and the nutritious food inside them, works like a charm.
I like feeding africans, as a matter of fact I just picked up a bunch of freebies from a buddy and dropped in the tanks along with a bunch of guppies...