Good Diet for Malawi Cichlids?

[JDogg]

Well I think I am having some success with my Malawi cichlids...

This is a 45 gallon tank I have in my classroom (I’m a science teacher)

2 Red Empress Cichlids: Protomelas taeniolatus
1 Yellow Labs: Labidochromis caeruleus
2 Cobalt Blue Zebra: Maylandia callainos
(All juvies under 3 inches)

And a

1 Featherfin Syno: Synodontis eupterus


I had 3 Labs but one got crushed by a rock the male cobalt was excavating under and the other disappeared over the weekend and was striped to the bones Monday morning I will probably soon get a second female cobalt and 2 new female Labs

The color of my male cobalt is getting brighter and one of my empress, the larger one (must be a male) is starting to color up...

My question is how can I make there diet better?

Here is what I feed them now
Monday and Wednesday - New Life Spectrum: Cichlid Formula
Tuesday - Wardley Essential Cichlid Flakes
Thursday - TetraCichlid Mini Granules
Friday - Frozen then boiled peas
Saturday and Sunday - they fast

Plus they have a constant supply of duckweed to graze on...

Suggestions to make there diet better?

Am I meeting all the Syno's Nutritional needs with this diet? If not what should i add for him?

TIA

 

[Idealconcepts]

From the look of it you have 5 total fish. This will more likely not be enough, because from this five you will have one who will be dominant and terrorize the other four, with a strong likely hood of killing them, as with the yellow lab. What is the foot print of your tank (LxW)? It is typically suggested to have a 55gal or large tank, mainly to give the fish enough room to claim as there. You could possibly get away using a 45gal, but you will need to add more fish to help distribute the aggression of the dominant fish. I’m not familiar with the Red Empress or the Synodontis Eupterus, but I have the yellow Labs and Cobalt blues, I would suggest purchasing more juvies, more like 3 or 4 yellow labs and 2 or 3 cobalt blues, females if you can find them. As for food, you can try Hikari Cichlid Excel, and Hikari Algae Waffers (this will be good for the Syndontis and your Cichlids). You don’t need to boil the peas just soak them in warm water for a few minutes to soften them up and the fish will go after them. Drop a couple wafers on Friday before you leave for the weekend, so they have something to snack on. Are you feeding them 2-3 times a day, they are still fairly young and need food to grow, this can also help with reducing aggression. How often are you doing water changes and vacuuming the substrate? I would suggest a 25-50% water change and a vacuum with a 25-50% water change, one on Tuesday and one on Friday morning. All this should help your cichlids grow healthy, and should eventually start breeding. Good luck.

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

I'd suggest adding a spirulina based food into their diet.

 

[JDogg]

From the look of it you have 5 total fish. This will more likely not be enough, because from this five you will have one who will be dominant and terrorize the other four, with a strong likely hood of killing them, as with the yellow lab. What is the foot print of your tank (LxW)? It is typically suggested to have a 55gal or large tank, mainly to give the fish enough room to claim as there. You could possibly get away using a 45gal, but you will need to add more fish to help distribute the aggression of the dominant fish. I’m not familiar with the Red Empress or the Synodontis Eupterus, but I have the yellow Labs and Cobalt blues, I would suggest purchasing more juvies, more like 3 or 4 yellow labs and 2 or 3 cobalt blues, females if you can find them. As for food, you can try Hikari Cichlid Excel, and Hikari Algae Waffers (this will be good for the Syndontis and your Cichlids). You don’t need to boil the peas just soak them in warm water for a few minutes to soften them up and the fish will go after them. Drop a couple wafers on Friday before you leave for the weekend, so they have something to snack on. Are you feeding them 2-3 times a day, they are still fairly young and need food to grow, this can also help with reducing aggression. How often are you doing water changes and vacuuming the substrate? I would suggest a 25-50% water change and a vacuum with a 25-50% water change, one on Tuesday and one on Friday morning. All this should help your cichlids grow healthy, and should eventually start breeding. Good luck.

WOW... thanks for the malawi cichlid lesson

i do not have very much aggression i do not think any of the fish intently killed either of the labs, one was crushed under a rock that was undermined
i can easily get more labs... the cobalts are a different story... the only place that carries them in my area is petco they want $15 each and i am not buy them from petco, when petsmart has a sign up saying cobalts are $2 each, but they never have them in stock 8O ... petco refuseds to price match...

is a 90% pwc once a week ok?

i feed twice a day... and i was thinking of adding spirulina to there diet

 

[Idealconcepts]

Not a problem, always willing to share my knowledge.

I forgot how long has your tank been running?

Your fish are young so they will get by for a while, but then you will see one that doesn't look to good, torn fins, sunken stomach, etc. Keep and on on this because it will happen once they get larger. Breeding instinct kicks in and its a pretty strong instinct.

Get a few more Yellows, and keep you eye out for Cobalts on sale. Yellows don't tend to be as aggressive as the cobalts so adding the Cobalts later shouldn't be a problem.

Yes 90% water change is way too much I wouldn't go past 75%. If you want to do it once a week do between 50-75%, make sure you use a decholrinator (SP??) and get the water temp from the faucet as close to the same as the tank temp.

You can get spirulina based flakes, find one with spirulina listed as the first ingredient. The flakes should get you by since they are still young.

 

[JDogg]

Not a problem, always willing to share my knowledge.

I forgot how long has your tank been running?

since august

Your fish are young so they will get by for a while, but then you will see one that doesn't look to good, torn fins, sunken stomach, etc. Keep and on on this because it will happen once they get larger. Breeding instinct kicks in and its a pretty strong instinct.

Get a few more Yellows, and keep you eye out for Cobalts on sale. Yellows don't tend to be as aggressive as the cobalts so adding the Cobalts later shouldn't be a problem.

Yes 90% water change is way too much I wouldn't go past 75%. If you want to do it once a week do between 50-75%, make sure you use a decholrinator (SP??) and get the water temp from the faucet as close to the same as the tank temp.

You can get spirulina based flakes, find one with spirulina listed as the first ingredient. The flakes should get you by since they are still young.

i have both wardley spirulina plus and HBH Veggie Wafers both list spirulina as the first ingredient

 

[Idealconcepts]

You should be good to go with Spirulina.

 

[JDogg]

picked up 3 new female Labs and 1 new female cobalt... (i hope they are female :? may be too young to tell)

 

[Idealconcepts]

If you don't have a quarntine tank and have put the new fish in the 45gal, keep an eye on all the fish to make sure the new ones don't introduce ich. If you see ich there is a high temp salt remedy to remove the ich from your fish.

You should be able to get by with 8 fish in the tank. Just keep an eye on the agression so you can make any neccessary changes when needed.

Good luck.

 

[JDogg]

If you don't have a quarntine tank and have put the new fish in the 45gal, keep an eye on all the fish to make sure the new ones don't introduce ich. If you see ich there is a high temp salt remedy to remove the ich from your fish.

You should be able to get by with 8 fish in the tank. Just keep an eye on the agression so you can make any neccessary changes when needed.

Good luck.

i have never used salt to fight ich, just high temp... never lost a fish to ich yet

 

[godzilla]

not to be a pain in the a** but i hope this thread goes back on topic because I am curious of this myself! right now I feed pellets most of the time and veg flakes on occasion. id love to give some variety!

 

[Idealconcepts]

My bad godzilla.

Depending on how many Malawi cichlids you have, you can buy a half pound of Ken's Veg Sticks for $4.50. I'm attaching the information below and the link, they also have a spirulina stick. I first tried this last year and bought a pound of the stuff, took a little while for the cichlids to take it but after a week of this and my other rotation of food they go crazy for it. I bought 3 lbs about a month ago. Also try peas, and you can use seaweed for sushi, just look at the ingridents and find one that has mainly seaweed and minimal other ingridents, don't forget Hikari Cichlid Excel and New Life Spectrum.


KENS PREMIUM VEGETABLE STICKS:

FORMULATED USING A WIDE VARIETY OF VEGETABLES, INCLUDING ONLY THE BEST KELP! PLECOSTOMUS, AND A WIDE VARIETY OF CICHLIDS THRIVE ON THI DIET!THIS IS A VERY, VERY VEGGIE STICK AT A EXCELLENT PRICE!



INGREDIENTS: MIXTURE OF PLANTS AND VEGETABLES INCLUDING: SEAWEED, SPIRULINA, CARROTS, SQUASH, SPINACH. VEGETABLE OILS, SOY MEAL, YEAST, WHEAT FLOUR, VITAMIN & MINERAL SUPPLEMENT. ASORBIC ACID (SOURCE OF VITAMIN C). NATURAL AND SOME ARTIFICIAL COLORING.



GUARANTEED ANALYSIS: CRUDE PROTEIN 35.0% MIN., CRUDE FAT 7.0% MIN., CRUDE FIBER 7.0% MAX., MOISTURE 8.0% MAX., ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS, EXCEPT FOR SOME ARTIFICIAL COLORING. NO PRESERVATIVES

http://www.kensfish.com/kenssticks.html

 

[godzilla]

oh no problem at all. im on forums enough to know its impossible to ignore all the side conversations that are possible! no worries

im going to give them a try. maybe ill try peas first and see how they do. how much shoud I give and what happens to uneaten peas? the uneaten ciclid pellets look nasty on my CC substrate!

 

[Idealconcepts]

godzilla, if you have any uneaten food, more than likely you are feeding too much. Any food uneaten will reduce the quality of your water, it will make your tank look dirty, and require more frequent vacuums. Try feeding your fish less, you typically want to feed them as much food as they can eat in in 30-45 seconds, 2-3 times a day for adult fish. As an example if you feed your fish a teaspoon 2 times a day, don't dump the entire teaspoon at once, drop a little and when its all gone drop a little more, repeat this for a total period of 30-45 seconds and you should not have any food at the bottom.

The amount of peas you should feed should be the same, what ever they can finish in 30-45 seconds.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I feed my Malawis Ken's Veggie flakes, Spirulina wafers, and NLS cichlid pellets. Occasionally they get some raw veggies. I really like Ken's fish food...I like knowing what all goes in it. It seems more natural to me than commercial foods....even though it is manmade.

 

[godzilla]

I have NLS pellets, and I just ordered some veggie flakes and veggie sticks from Ken. with the pellets, I just feel like they sink so fast and nobody (except my pleco) eats from the bottom. sometimes Ill see a lab down there but the demasoni arent eating it.....

i have some HBH veggie flakes that ive been feeding them and they do much better with that. im going to try some peas tomorrow just to see how they do.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[O ALX O]

Don't forget romaine lettuce leaves.