Food for cichlids: types, number of feedings and methods

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Let's start with a sad moment. It is better for a beginner to refrain from an aquarium with cichlids. Why? Because these fish require large volumes of the aquarium, they are quite aggressive and difficult to care for. And most importantly - food for cichlids. It is easy to buy it, but due to the whimsicality, these fish still need to pick it up. Just about the feed and talk in the article.

It all starts with the type of fish

Everyone wants to eat, that's understandable. Only food for cichlids is different. And its purpose depends on the type of fish. If you have herbivorous pets, then they obviously will not appreciate the food for their predatory counterparts. Let's make a reservation right away that most cichlids belong to the latter. And herbivores are not so easy to buy.

In turn, predatory fish will not want to eat algae food. And those aquarium inhabitants who eat both protein and vegetable food will be very happy with its mixed appearance. Herbivorous cichlids include comrades from Malawi.

Omnivorous cichlids - mostly from Africa. And predators cannot be confused with anyone. They have a special head structure.

Types of food

What cichlid food is there? In the form of granules, sticks, flakes and,of course, frozen daphnia, coretra, tubifex, bloodworm. What is the difference between one type of food and another? More on that below.

Sticks

Stick food is used for large cichlid fish. It is brown, long and thin sticks. Length about 2 centimeters. The smell emanating from the feed is very intense. Smells like fish. Suitable for all types of these fish. It contains fish and fish products, vegetable proteins, algae and minerals.

Granules

Cichlid food pellets come in two varieties. For herbivorous fish and predators. They differ primarily in composition. We will not focus on this, because we have already said above.

Pellets (also called balls), whose color is green-brown, are designed for herbivorous cichlid fish. One half of such a granule is green, the second is light brown. Red-brown granules, respectively, suitable for omnivorous and predatory pets.

Flakes

They are produced for herbivorous cichlids. There is also food for sale for all types of cichlids. Flakes are also called chips. They really look like multi-colored large chips. As part of green flakes - spirulina, red - protein, they contain meat, and yellow - mixed. There are fish, and carrots, and beets.

Which food is better to buy?

Take Tetra food - you can't go wrong. Produced in Germany, the quality is excellent. It might seem expensive to some. For largeyou can take a large bucket of fish at once. For small ones, a liter jar will suffice.

And one more secret: there is Tetra feed, which is sold by weight. You can hardly order them online. And in pet stores where there is an aquarium department, they will always be. Packed in sachets of ten, twenty and fifty grams, as a rule. And such packaged food is much cheaper than packaged in a jar. Money is taken for the brand, do not forget about it.

Sera also produces good food. This is also a German company. Among amateur aquarists, she has proven herself well.

Live and frozen foods

This is for predators. For example, for a cichlid, a turquoise acara. This beauty loves to eat such food. What applies to them? Moth, first of all. For your aquarium pets, you can take a large bloodworm, if the cichlids are large, or medium. Tubifex and coretra fish are respected, but it is advisable to buy them only frozen. Bloodworm, in turn, can be given live. Nothing wrong with that. Bloodworms look like red worms. Unpleasant, but not to the point of fainting.

How to feed the fish?

Cichlids are fed once a day. The portion should be such that aquarium pets can handle it in a few minutes. It is very important not to overfeed your pets. For them, this is the scariest thing. It seems that the fish is hungry, and the owner is trying to give the poor thing more food. After a while, the aquarium inhabitants float upside down, and the owner wonders what hedid wrong. I cleaned the aquarium, defended the water carefully, fed well.

Did you know that 80% of fish die from overfeeding. Let your cichlids not be included in this sad statistics. What to do if you really feel sorry for the pets? Break your daily allowance into two parts. And feed your aquarium inhabitants in the morning and evening.

What other foods can I give?

Large fish, such as turquoise acara (cichlid), astronotus and other giants, will appreciate boiled beef meat, heart, liver. Products must be cooled and cut into pieces. Try giving your pets squid or shrimp.

And herbivores will be delighted with slices of carrots, cabbage, green lettuce and other vegetables. These treats are first poured over with boiling water.

If the fish don't eat enough food

If food for cichlids safely sinks to the bottom of the aquarium, it must be urgently removed from there. How to do it? With a siphon. From now on, reduce the portion and do not allow the food to not be eaten by the aquarium inhabitants. Remaining at the bottom, it begins to decompose and pollute the aquarium. And this is not at all good for the he alth of its inhabitants.

Who recommend cichlids?

An aquarium with cichlids is worth starting for an experienced fish lover. The rookie will ruin them. Some cichlids are not particularly whimsical, but they require certain water parameters, for example. Therefore, at first it is desirable to "fill your hand" on ordinary fish such as guppies, and then take on the maintenance of beautiful predators.

Conclusion

In the article weWe talked about food for cichlids. How it happens, how to properly feed these fish, how to avoid overeating.

And finally, a little tip: give frozen food as it is: cut off a small piece and throw it into the aquarium.