Recommended floating pellets for Big, Herbivorous Cichlids?

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moonstruckmuse

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2007
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So I have a ton of severum swimming about the house in various tanks, and all of them LOVE when I throw a little spinach/pea/romaine/zucchini/cucumber/etc into the tank.

... Except for my big guys. I bought them when they were already well over 7", and they were on pelleted food only. It's been 3 years, and despite me throwing just about every plant under the sun into the tank, they just don't bite. I end up fishing it out (and getting mauled myself by them whenever they're defending eggs).

They're now around 8", and will steal food from the arowana (so prawns, strips of fish, and random other meaty pellets) and eat the occasional greener looking pellet.
They didn't like the floating green OSI (too hard?) or Hikari pellets, but will eat Hikari Gold, Tetracolor Tropical Granules, NLS large fish formula.

They'll eat algae wafers... but they sink. And just about any sinking pellet they ignore halfway. The male is blind on one side, so I try to target feed to some extent... but the JD usually is a lot faster than the Sevs.

Since I can't get them to eat fresh plant matter, what are my options?
Criteria: Bigger size, floating, veggie based. I'm willing to make my own if someone teaches me a recipe.
 
Hakari Boi-Gold+ and Omega One super veggis pallets are two good choices, both float.
 
I'd try the Rift lake formulated Hikari pellets, since the veggie content is higher.
 
I just picked up a herbivorous cichlid myself and the food recommended to me for best growth and color was the Hikari Bio-Gold. They also recommended vegetable matter, but as said in your thread, that's not working for you. I'd look into the other pellets Aquanero mentioned as well.

I've also read about putting garlic on the food to entice the fish to eat it, have you tried this route?
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=50440
 
the Hikari Cichlid Staple is good for herbivores
 
I checked out a few LFS, and asked one to order the Omega One super veggie pellets with kelp in a larger size (they only had small pellets). The NLS one looks really interesting too. Actually, do any of you know where I can find the complete Omega One or NLS product lines online? I'm having a bit of trouble with that.

The rift lake (Hikari Cichlid Excel?) looked really interesting, but was only in mini pellet size, haha. I've never seen Bio-gold in any of the stores around me either - I do have Hikari Gold but was leaning away because it's advertised as a carnivorous one.

Cookie420 - I've heard of that, but I never quite figured out what that meant, haha. Does it mean to use raw and squash it onto the vegetable matter (if so, how does it stay?) Or to boil them together? Or to buy those expensive bottles of garlic extract? You get the idea.

I'm not particularly impressed with the ingredients of Hikari Cichlid Staple - too many carbs and starch binders way up front, with absolutely no vegetable listed? I'm sure my fish can survive on that, but I want them to look and feel good too. But maybe someone's had some positive experiences with that.
 
Cookie420 - I've heard of that, but I never quite figured out what that meant, haha. Does it mean to use raw and squash it onto the vegetable matter (if so, how does it stay?) Or to boil them together? Or to buy those expensive bottles of garlic extract? You get the idea.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure on this so you should search it on the site, but I think I read you can just buy the diced/crushed garlic and dip the vegetable to be fed to the fish into the garlic jar for a few minutes. Then wipe off the garlic chunks and drop it in.
 
Nutra fin makes a veggie pellet that i used for my africans once. I saw no major advantage in using it. Plus this was before i looked at the ingredence for content. I love omega one products now though and all of my fish past and present love them, including my 6" green sev's. I think they just came out with a super veggie pellet but it sinks i believe. But you might try it out.
 
Even looking over the Hikari Bio-Gold *ingredients I'm not seeing vegetable, just vitamins and minerals-

* shrimp meal, white fish meal, brewer's dried yeast, wheat flour, soybean meal, wheat-germ meal, carotene, protease, thiamine mono-nitrate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), vitamin B12, biotin, calcium pantothenate, choline chloride , vitamin D3, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite (source of vitamin K) insitol, para-aminobenzoic acid, zinc sulfate, menadione sulfate, salt, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, cobalt sulfate, aluminum hydroxide, manganese sulfate
 
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