feeding a buttikoferi

bigriver

Feeder Fish
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Mar 18, 2007
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just picked up a 1 inch little guy for my 75 gallon and the fish store guy said they only eat veggies,algae waffers and so on ,so I ended up buying omega one veggie kelp pellets. I thought they where carnivores or atleast omnivores..anyway he is eating flakes,shrimp pellets and whatever the other fish eat.what would be a good diet for them what do other butti owners feed theirs.
 

1bigdovii

Blue Tier VIP
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Mar 1, 2012
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Use the same care as most other cichlids. Just need veggie suppliments they are mainly snail eaters in the wild so they dont strictly eat veggies. I give mind veggie based food a few times a week and he is very healthy. What are you keeping with him?

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mach_six

Feeder Fish
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Aug 30, 2005
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I had one of these more than 18 years ago, I just feed it the green Hikari pellets for african cichlids but then Hikari's selection was limited and this was the only sinking food it eat.

At the time I only had a red snakehead over 10" and it woudl be able to hold it's own because the SH would actually try to eat it even though it's too wide to fit in it's mouth, the fish was over 5" at that time.

It looked like a smaller version of the blue variant that I saw in some store that was over 2' long and 10-12" tall... I'm not sure if they changed colors later or if there's a seperate tilapia species. Butterkoferi I don't think get that big.
 

ExoticGREEN

Redtail Catfish
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Jan 31, 2010
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Well I feed my buttikoferi hikari gold floating and sinking, carnivore, Massivore, algae wafers, carrots, and some other stuff.......

Krill and i think once in awhile a silverside.
 

bigriver

Feeder Fish
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Mar 18, 2007
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thanks everyone..will be buying some wafers and carnivore massivore already have alot of the hikari pellets the 75 gallon has a pictus cat and 2 male convicts in it, for now.. they will be bumped out and placed into the 55 spare the butti gets the 75 to himself soon.pics to follow
 

RonnieRon1

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 20, 2011
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Gahanna, Ohio
I have 5 juevies, they are all about 4 inches my big one is pushing 5 inches now and i feed them, frozenbloodworms, hikari gold pellets,frozen mysis shrimp,frozen carnivor food, veggie flake food,live crickets and occasionally they will grab up a rosie or two that i feed my two green terrors, basically mine eat about anything ya put in there.
 

luvinbluegills

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2011
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Pgh PA
We have a large school of buttikoferi in the large hippo exhibit at the St Louis Zoo. They live on hippo poop. It is a pretty cool ecosystem to observe. The front side of the exhibit is glass, so you can watch the large groups interact.

http://www.zoochat.com/602/rivers-edge-hippo-harbor-171117/
Off topic warning;
Ok, that's gross, :D but TOTALLY cool to imagine having a working ecosystem. I've dreamed of setting up a home aquarium with a near balance like that. I often come close when placing an aquarium on my back porch in summer, because the insects which land in/lay eggs in there provide a great deal of food, the plants and shrimp add more, and with the exception of the year I had Wolf fish out there, the system has largely thrived with little more than water changes.
 
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