How many times do you feed your cichlids? some say 2-3 times a day but some say only once a day????

any ideas??

thanks, Hmmmm

I feed all of my adult fish twice a day with various food stuffs. With juvies and fry I tried to feed at least four times a day. Most of the time its closer to three, except on the weekends when I make sure its four times.

I want to ask that you post what you feed along with your answer. I use several different types for food for my fish. I use NLS and Haikari pellets, Omega one flake...the veggie max and the cichlid types, I also feed frozen and fresh foods also...blood worms, brine shrimp, mosquitos larva.

Twice a day for my bigger juvies (those 2"-3"). For fry I try for 3 times a day when I can do it.

Everyone except the fry are given one day off with no food each week.

For Mbuna, 1 feeding of 30 seconds of NLS Cichlid followed by a little HBH Veggie Flake for those who prefer it. Second feeding is just 30 seconds of HBH Veggie Flake.

For Haps, the same but substitute Tetra Spirulina for the Veggie Flake, and add weekly treats of Brine Shrimp with Spirulina.

BTW, most of what I know about feeding Malawis I learned from the people on this Board!

Don

Oh man, you guys are good Blush Blush

I feed once a day when I come home from work. The herbivorous cichlids get a good spirulina or veggie flake and to the rest I feed frozen mysis, blood worms and brine shrimp. I also give them NLS and different flake foods like earth worm or krill flake. One day per week they get nothing.

Just remember that we aren't all feeding the same type of cichlids, and what works for one won't necessarily work for another!

We keep only mbuna as far as Africans go, and one crazy goby, besides the SA and SW tank...

Our adult mbuna are fed twice a day, not more than they will consume in 30 seconds - probably less than that if I really counted. They get a mix of half and half Nutrafin Cichlid flake and Omega One Veggie Flake.

Fry get the same food, only 3-4 times a day.

The SA tank gets Nutrafin Cichlid flake in the a.m., and blood worms or brine shrimp in the evening.

Kim

I always hear about the NLS food but never see it anywhere!!! can some one show me what it looks like.... thank,

also, i fed them once a day Omega One cichlid flakes.... and omega one super color.... I used to feed my guys blood worms but some one told me that it causes my cichlids to have bloating...? I also feed them lettuce (never read it any where but they eat it lol)

here is what i have in my tank:
all these guys are 5-8in in size....
2Yellow labs,
1 albino orange zebra,
1 male and 2 female brownea,
1 cobalt blue,
1 peacock,
1 male and 1 female aturus,
1 male kenye,
1 striped zebra,
1 south American cichlid,
1 female hybrid peacock zebra,
1 blue cray fish,
2 common plecos,
1 rafeale pleco,

in my other tank i have:
they are 2-3in in size:
3 bumble bees,
1 princess cichlids,
2 purple zebras,
2 orange zebras,
3 aturus,
3 tiger barbs and 2 orange barbs,
3 hybred sunshine peacocks,
1 electrick blue,
3 labs,
3 kenyae,
2 common plecos,

I'm just getting confused on all the info out there of how many times to feed them and what to feed them,
something told me that feeding my big guys once a day was too little Hmmmm

so any light you can shed on this will be greatly appreciated Sad

I love them, they look so nice and i want to help get their colors out... Drooly

I would be very careful of feeding bloodworms to mbuna. It is not advisable, and you have a mix of both herbivores and omnivores, so you could very well have problems. I would only feed them to a tank where all the fish were safe to have them. (This is why I suggested that we actually state the type fish we are feeding a specific food to!) On top of that, alot of people are allergic to bloodworms, so handling them can be risky.

Something like Hikari, Dainichi or NLS would be your best bet, since you have quite the mix of herbivores and omnivores in your tanks.

Is the first list an all male tank? How long has it been set up? How big is it? (My curiousity is getting the best of me...That's a pretty crazy mix of fish that size!)

Kim

they are males and females, and the size of the tank is 55Gallon... I WOKE UP THIS MORNING AND FOUND MY PEACOCK DEAD!!! Grrrr

I'M NOT SURE WHAT IT IS.... PH is @ 7.8, KH is @ 80, Ammonia is @ 0.03, NO2 is @ 0, NH3 and NH4 is @ 0....

plenty of filteration and plenty of air, and loads of caves.... just bought the peacock for m a pet store and lived here for 2 weeks then today i seen this??? I can post some pic of the tank if that would help... worry wart! Sad

I think Kim was asking how big the tank is, and I would be interested in seeing some pics of the whole tank also.

OK here are some pics:

Male aturus


Female aturus


The cobalt zebra has done that sense the day we bought it, this is what it does all day, i took a pic before a water change and after a water change.... and this is what i get:


south American dude (he has a brother who grew up with the same set up i do)


brownae