What fish food do you feed your africans?
- Thread starter cwill78295
- Start date
dln78;1698576; said:
Don't know where you're located, but any specialty LFS, i.e. not Petsmart, should be able to order it, just ask.
NLS cichlid pellets (1mm)
NLS cichlid pellets (3mm)
hikari gold
hikari bio-gold
hikari staple
hikari sinking gold
hikari sinking carnivore
hikari massivore (broken up)
hikari freeze dried krill
hikari algae wafers
wardley shrimp pellets
frozen hikari bloodworms
frozen hikari spirulina enhanced brineshrimp
frozen silversides
frozen krill
frozen beefheart
frozen cichlid delight
live feeder guppies/roseys
live ghost shrimp
live earthworms
variety is key.
NLS cichlid pellets (3mm)
hikari gold
hikari bio-gold
hikari staple
hikari sinking gold
hikari sinking carnivore
hikari massivore (broken up)
hikari freeze dried krill
hikari algae wafers
wardley shrimp pellets
frozen hikari bloodworms
frozen hikari spirulina enhanced brineshrimp
frozen silversides
frozen krill
frozen beefheart
frozen cichlid delight
live feeder guppies/roseys
live ghost shrimp
live earthworms
variety is key.
Pellets are variety!!! NLS is designed and suggested to be the only food you feed. I only add brine for the hunt. Now if your fish requires higher than 37% protein then I understand adding others.
My mbuna's are near exclusively fed this (HBH Natural Veggie Flake Premium and NLS Cichlid Formula pellets):
Occasionally I also provide them with dried nori/seaweed (from the saltwater LFS), and nuisance macroalgae which seems to be growing only in my saltwater refugium.
My frontosa's, venustus', malawi blue dolphins and malawi eye biters are primarily New Life Spectrum pellets (Large Fish Formula) (5lbs bucket of it seen in the photo below), as well as various frozen crustaceans (mysis shrimp, krill, prawn and even chopped up raw shrimp from the supermarket [not seen in pic]:
My fry are feed exclusively NLS Small Fish formula.
All of my cichlids are fasted (nonconsecutively) 5 to 6 days out of the month.
Off topic, but I kept tiny identically sized synodontis eupterus catfish in both my herbivore and carnivore african cichlid set ups. The growth rate of the one in carnivore tank was exceptionally superior to that of the one in my mbuna tank (it was a far larger fish at 15 months than the other was at 30 months, as in over twice the size).
Occasionally I also provide them with dried nori/seaweed (from the saltwater LFS), and nuisance macroalgae which seems to be growing only in my saltwater refugium.
My frontosa's, venustus', malawi blue dolphins and malawi eye biters are primarily New Life Spectrum pellets (Large Fish Formula) (5lbs bucket of it seen in the photo below), as well as various frozen crustaceans (mysis shrimp, krill, prawn and even chopped up raw shrimp from the supermarket [not seen in pic]:
My fry are feed exclusively NLS Small Fish formula.
All of my cichlids are fasted (nonconsecutively) 5 to 6 days out of the month.
Off topic, but I kept tiny identically sized synodontis eupterus catfish in both my herbivore and carnivore african cichlid set ups. The growth rate of the one in carnivore tank was exceptionally superior to that of the one in my mbuna tank (it was a far larger fish at 15 months than the other was at 30 months, as in over twice the size).
"Africans" is too general...
Mbuna are herbivores and should be fed flakes/pellets that contain spirulina and are labeled as being for african cichlids. Haps are omnivores, so can be fed both veggies and meat-based foods. Again, the label should say that the food is for African Cichlid Haplochromines.
Sorry to be preachy, but when I started out with a tank of Mbuna, I was feeding them Tetra Cichlid Sticks, which are designed to be fed to South American Cichlids.
Over time, several of the mbuna developed "malawi bloat" which was caused, at least in part, from feeding them the wrong type of food. Eventually the bloat killed them 
IMHO, correct diet is the most important thing for long term health of your fish...along with regular water changes of course.
Mbuna are herbivores and should be fed flakes/pellets that contain spirulina and are labeled as being for african cichlids. Haps are omnivores, so can be fed both veggies and meat-based foods. Again, the label should say that the food is for African Cichlid Haplochromines.
Sorry to be preachy, but when I started out with a tank of Mbuna, I was feeding them Tetra Cichlid Sticks, which are designed to be fed to South American Cichlids.
Over time, several of the mbuna developed "malawi bloat" which was caused, at least in part, from feeding them the wrong type of food. Eventually the bloat killed them IMHO, correct diet is the most important thing for long term health of your fish...along with regular water changes of course.
bigfishy69;1702630; said:"Africans" is too general...
Mbuna are herbivores and should be fed flakes/pellets that contain spirulina and are labeled as being for african cichlids. Haps are omnivores, so can be fed both veggies and meat-based foods. Again, the label should say that the food is for African Cichlid Haplochromines.
Sorry to be preachy, but when I started out with a tank of Mbuna, I was feeding them Tetra Cichlid Sticks, which are designed to be fed to South American Cichlids.
IMHO, correct diet is the most important thing for long term health of your fish...along with regular water changes of course.
Why I switched to NLS for everything...
