What do you feed your dwarf cichlids?

[JRagg]

I've tried a few different things and some have been more successful than others.

Bloodworms - They love them and usually have a mouthful before they hit the ground.
Kent "Cichlid extreme" pellets (small) - They seem to get eaten, but my apistos are still pretty small and have a hard time getting them down (I soak them for 5-10 minutes before putting them in.

I also tried some spirulina flake (I know it's for plant eaters) that I had from my last tank today. They took to that better than they did to the pellets, but nowhere near as well as the bloodworms.

I'm looking at feeding them a small amount of flake in the morning (which flake is best for dwarf cichlids?) and then bloodworms at night. They seem to have grown well since I started with the bloodworms a couple weeks ago.

 

[Guest]

i use wardly's essential cichlid for mine.


I also feed them strips of cichlid salad dried seaweed, bloodworms, brine shrimp, and hikari sinking wafers. they love those.

 

[Mosaic]

I feed mine frozen brine shrimp w/spirulina and live bbs almost exclusively, and have gotten great color from it. I tried the frozen bloodworms, but they sink too fast for them to grab in time (and the freeze dried bw always get found and eaten by my dog). They'll also nibble at stuff I throw in for the snails. They're doing really well and make lots of little babies.

 

[Menagerie]

The dwarf cichlids I have had over the years like any flake, show interest in algae wafers, love frozen foods and fresh veggies.

 

[Jaybird]

I feed mine cichlid flake, floaking cichlid pellets, frozen and freeze-dried brine shrimp, freeze-dried tubifex worms, and frozen blood worms. Oh, and the occassional chunk of blanched zucchini.

Heck, I feed my larger cichilds the same things. I just try to keep the diet varied.

 

[Menagerie]

You don't need to blanch the zucchini.

 

[JRagg]

Mine wouldn't touch the veggie wafer I dropped in last night. I did however find a pile of snails on top of it this morning.

I think they must have been raised on frozen foods (bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc.), that's why they're so reluctant to touch anything else.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

My Bolivian Rams and GBR's like any flake food, frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, and chopped up krill. They also love algae wafers and vegi wafers, as well as shrimp pellets. They eat just about anything I put in. I also occasionally feed NLS Thera+A, and NLS Cichlid Formula.

 

[shsean]

well my gouramis can survive with merely normal fish pellets...and they are growing healthy

 

[Jchillin]

well my gouramis can survive with merely normal fish pellets...and they are growing healthy

shsean - This is a discussion about foods for cichlids, not fish in general. Please post within the discussion parameters.

 

[JRagg]

Ok, I see jaybird goes with the freeze dried stuff. I've never used freeze dried anything before. How does it compare with the frozen cubes? I'm sure it's easier to feed because you don't have to smash up the cubes into reasonable sizes, but do the fish go nuts for it all the same?

 

[JRagg]

Ok, here's an update from my end. I bought some freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried krill. The bloodworms act much like flake. They sit on the top and the fish go absolutely nuts for them. They don't look quite as "meaty" as the frozen bloodworms, but they're much easier to feed.

As for the krill. I'm thinking that may have been a mistake. They're huge. I think it's safe to say that my fish are nowhere near big enough to eat the krill. I noticed that LWB said he chops up the krill. Do you chop the freeze dried stuff? I can just see that being a huge mess.

 

[JDogg]

i chop up the freeze dried krill...my fish (including Bolivians and GBR) love them! i also feed vegies, tetramin flakes, tetracichlid mini granules, freeze dried bloodworms and Earthworm flakes (new one to me, lfs got it in and said her GBR at home loved them so i had to try, mine love them too!)

 

[sherry]

I feed frozen -- mysis shrimp, daphnia, cyclopeeze, only occassionally blood worms as the casings are hard to digest and can cause blockages. I also feed a little bit of nls, and a lot of baby brine. (frozen) .

 

[JTAM963]

Whats a good foor for firemouths/convicts/bolivian rams?? I feed them pellets.. but it seems like they wait for it to get soaked and sink..any ideas?? Haven't fed bloodwoorms yet or brine shrimp

 

[Gillie]

What kind of Apistos are they? Most of them do not readily accept prepared foods the solution is having to nearly starve them for a couple days to get them to accept it.


Sorry just saw how old the topic was didn't read last post before posting myself, anyway hope you found a solution to the food dilemma.

 

[clubsuperduty]

I feed mine hikari micro wafers.

 

[drummerj]

I feed my convicts hikari wafers, spirulina pellets, and Wardley floating mini pellets, they go wild over the spirulina and wafers.

 

[toddnbecka]

What food has everything a fish needs? Other fish. Just toss a convict into the blender to make liquid food suitable for the smallest dwarf cichlds and their fry...
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Actually, daphnia for adults and bbs/microworms for small fry are some of the best foods.

 

[MaryPa]

Bloodworms,myasis and vitamin soaked BS,Walter worms,cichlid pellets,algae waffers and flake.