Feeding schedule?

[Mcass]

As you can tell I have quite of an assortment in my tank. Currently I do several small feedings a day of Tetracichlid Cichlid Flakes. Could anyone suggest a better diet and feeding schedule or is what I already doing good enough to keep my fish healthy? Also would a change in diet do anything to encourage breeding?

 

[5x5]

Here is my advice, as I have adjusted my feedings and food brands and seen results:

1. Get rid of the TetraCichlid flakes and pick up something made by New Life Spectrum or OmegaOne.

2. Stop feeding multiple times a day and start feeding once every two days (some say once every 3, but I like 2). This will prevent overfeeding (and its associated illnesses) and keep your water parameters better. Also - don't increase the food when you do this to compensate, the idea is to feed less.

I don't breed, but I have never read anything about food diets encouraging breeding. usually clean water and temperature seem to be the main parameters you need to control. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

 

[LyndaB]

+1

I really can't add much more than the above poster.

I feed every 2-3 days and have very good luck with it. My tanks are clean and my fish are healthy.

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

try feeding every 2-3 days as suggested but maybe for one day a week give them some bloodworm or brine shrimp to keep them happy
they also love a good hunt, so i sometimes feed mine any guppy fry my brothers fish can provide.
many people find feeding less causes more aggression... and somehow makes for more breeding. idk

 

[Mcass]

OOOOKay!!!...Well here is what is going on. I finally ran out of my Tetracichlid Flakes and went and bought some new food. Now I am seeing some problems. What I ended up getting was Topfin Medium Cichlid Pellets (Floating and sinking) w/ color enhancers, and I picked up some Hikari Spiriluna Brine Shrimp. They have been fed this twice on each of the last two days. I went ahead and fed them both days bevause in most books I have read it talks about feeding them 2-3 times a day in small amounts. I know this seems contrary to the other advice on this and other posts, but that schedule has never caused me problems. However, today I noticed after doing a water change, that all three of my Livingstonii look bloated. They are still swimming around actively and dont look uncomfortable, but look very nloated nontheless. My Male had bloated about two months ago but was able to unconstipate by the next day. I hope this will be the case here. My question is this though. Is it the change in diet and should I go back to the flake, or should I go ahead and spread out the feedings?

 

[steez]

Well uh...they already told you what they recommend. I'd +1 the skipping days for feeding, it's good to let their bodies fully digest the food and get rid of it. You also didn't follow the food advice. I'm a little confused because it kinda seems like you asked the questions, got advice, didn't use it and asked the same advice.

Not to be rude......

 

[Lady_Alia]

It seems that when you do a food change with any critter, wether it have fur or scale, it's a little hard on the tummy. I would skip feeding them for a few days (I didn't look at the date of this post so forgive me).
I feed 2x a day. But I skip 1 day a week. Never had an issue. I use a mixture of several foods in one can, that way they get
a variety of nutrients per feeding. It works great in my tanks.
As for encouraging breeding, if you have healthy, happy fish, (with correct water parameters for your specific type of fish) you're gonna have babies.
Good luck!