Cichlid Food

[dmoney808]

Hi, I am pretty new to keeping cichlids and I have 6 juvenile peacocks and one mbuna in my tank. I have had them for almost a year now.

Anyway, I started out with a few which my uncle gave me from a batch of babies from his cichlids. When I started, he gave me NLS to feed them, so I started with that. Well, then as I got more fish and researched different foods I got curious. Long story short, I keep a plastic bin with my tank and it now has a bunch of different foods in it. I have:
- NLS - tiny pellets were all they could eat when I first got them
- Omega One Cichlid also like 1mm pellets
- Fluval Bug Bites
- Xtreme Pee Wee
- Hikari Cichlid - bigger pellets I need to crush for them to eat
- Northfin veggie (primarily for mbuna, but peacocks eat it too)
- Northfin Cichlid

In the beginning I was curious to see what they would like best. As it would turn out, they eat it all just the same.

I have been feeding them what they eat right away in 2 minutes twice a day and fast them on Sundays. I have also been rotating pellets at each feeding, so NLS one morning, bug bites in the afternoon, Omega one the next morning, and so on.

Is there any harm in switching up their food like this? Should I be feeding mostly one type? Should I mix them all together and feed a buffet at each feeding? Any input from you seasoned keepers would be appreciated. Eventually, I suppose I will settle on one or a couple of pellets, but I need to use these up first.

 

[Jlombard80]

Hi, I am pretty new to keeping cichlids and I have 6 juvenile peacocks and one mbuna in my tank. I have had them for almost a year now.



Anyway, I started out with a few which my uncle gave me from a batch of babies from his cichlids. When I started, he gave me NLS to feed them, so I started with that. Well, then as I got more fish and researched different foods I got curious. Long story short, I keep a plastic bin with my tank and it now has a bunch of different foods in it. I have:

- NLS - tiny pellets were all they could eat when I first got them

- Omega One Cichlid also like 1mm pellets

- Fluval Bug Bites

- Xtreme Pee Wee

- Hikari Cichlid - bigger pellets I need to crush for them to eat

- Northfin veggie (primarily for mbuna, but peacocks eat it too)

- Northfin Cichlid



In the beginning I was curious to see what they would like best. As it would turn out, they eat it all just the same.



I have been feeding them what they eat right away in 2 minutes twice a day and fast them on Sundays. I have also been rotating pellets at each feeding, so NLS one morning, bug bites in the afternoon, Omega one the next morning, and so on.



Is there any harm in switching up their food like this? Should I be feeding mostly one type? Should I mix them all together and feed a buffet at each feeding? Any input from you seasoned keepers would be appreciated. Eventually, I suppose I will settle on one or a couple of pellets, but I need to use these up first.

I have 14 assorted cichlids in my tank, they get bug bites in the morning and at night I alternate between blood worms and brine shrimp. They love all three. Just out of curiosity I had an albino zebra mbuna for about 3 days and it was attacking all of my other fish, how does yours get along with the peacocks?

 

[dmoney808]

It can be a tank boss at times, in fact that is why I have been increasing my stock and it has curbed the aggression. It will occasionally chase a fish, usually only the juveniles I have that are grey with bars like the demasoni. Hopefully once they color up they will be orange and then I won’t need to worry about that anymore.

 

[charliebankston]

I have 14 assorted cichlids in my tank, they get bug bites in the morning and at night I alternate between blood worms and brine shrimp. They love all three. Just out of curiosity I had an albino zebra mbuna for about 3 days and it was attacking all of my other fish, how does yours get along with the peacocks?

14 lake malawi cichlids? Blood worms and brine shrimp are too high in protein for daily feeding of lake malawi cichlids. Some are also herbivores in the wild

 

[charliebankston]

It can be a tank boss at times, in fact that is why I have been increasing my stock and it has curbed the aggression. It will occasionally chase a fish, usually only the juveniles I have that are grey with bars like the demasoni. Hopefully once they color up they will be orange and then I won’t need to worry about that anymore.

It prob won't stop. Lol. Mbuna are very aggressive. If you remove the zebra, then a demasoni will take his place ie

 

[V227]

I've been keeping a mixed African Cichlid community for the past seven years. Omega One cichlid pellets & flakes seems to fulfill the Haps, Peacocks & Mbunas nutritional needs. The fish are healthy & very colorful.

 

[charliebankston]

I've been keeping a mixed African Cichlid community for the past seven years. Omega One cichlid pellets & flakes seems to fulfill the Haps, Peacocks & Mbunas nutritional needs. The fish are healthy & very colorful.

That's good stuff. My African tank will eat anything honestly. They're the only ones that will eat omega one too, lol

 

[charliebankston]

Those demasoni can be highly aggressive too btw