Slow Growers

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number17Fan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2006
112
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Rhode Island
I have had most of my Mbuna for about 2 years now and I am blown away by how slow they grow. I am beginning to think I am going something wrong.

Over the past 6 months I feel like they have all stagnated in growth. In particular, my 5 yellow labs, that actually got "lapped" in size by some fry born in August of 2007.

My water quality is good (20ppm Nitrates, zero nitrites, pH around 8, hardness around 350) and the fish are colorfull happy and healthy.

I started to think that I don't feed them enough.

Here is my feeding routine..

Every other morning I melt a brine shrimp cube in a cup of tank water and pour it in slowly.

Everynight I give them a cube of veggie jello.

In between these I give them a pinch of Omega One flake or Spirullina flake and then back it up with a pinch of Omega One pellets for the big guys.

The container says "all the food they can eat in 2 mins". They devour this flake and pellets in like 30 seconds.

Should I keep throwing more in? Seems like it stuff them to the gills (no pun intended).

Steve
 
you can feed much more as long as its not too much protein and you're doing many water changes.
i feed my 55 gallon mbuna tank over the course of a day about 20 cichlid pellets, 3 spirulina wafers, two prawns torn into many pieces, a pinch of FD krill, and Omega One color plus or something like that
mine are still young and im doing 25% WC everyother day and 50% 1 day a week
 
What size is your tank and how many fish are in it I dont feed flake at all most of it dosnt seem to do the trick. New life spectrum is a good food and you can also feed fresh vegs like zuchinni sweet potatoes cucumber and spinach I soften mine in the mic for a couple of mins so it sinks . Hope this helps.Pat:)
 
I'd definitely feed more and maybe do more water changes? I dunno how often you're doing it, but I do at least 15% every week on my Tang tank.
 
I agree with everyone saying feed more. I feed Spir. flakes, frozen shrimp, and pellets and I feed them about 4 - 5 times daily. I 've done that for about 2 years and everyone has maxed out in size.

Also water changes 3 times a week. I only change about 15% everytime in my 75 and change filters 1 - 2 times a month.

Thanks,
 
Definitely change your filters out once a month. What you want to do is replace the carbon (if you use it, which I highly recommend), then take your biomax (the white stuff) and set it off to the side. You'll then want to pull out your sponge and rinse it out in tank water. What you can do is drain some water into a bucket and then just squeeze it out into there. This will increase the efficiency of your filters and maintain a higher water quality.
 
number17Fan;1924155; said:
I have had most of my Mbuna for about 2 years now and I am blown away by how slow they grow. I am beginning to think I am going something wrong.

Over the past 6 months I feel like they have all stagnated in growth. In particular, my 5 yellow labs, that actually got "lapped" in size by some fry born in August of 2007.
Click to expand...

You could have bought 2 year old fish thinking they were young fry. One LFS has a tank full of small mixed africans and half are 3 years old. The young ones are growing well because they are getting the care they need from you. GL.:headbang2
 
Sorry, I left out its a 55 gal tank. I do a 40-50% water change once a week.

I realize I haven't done any good filter maintenance in a while. I always rinse my sponge and bio wheels in tank water, but I haven't replace my carbon or ceramics in a long time.

So when it comes to water changes, it sounds like less quantity (20-25%) more often is a popular approach. Wish it wasn't so hard to lug out all the gear to do a quick water change. I need a better system.
 
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