What to Feed African Cichlids - What's OK and What's Not

[BF3xXx]

Thanks man! Good video!

[bolly12345]

@BF3xXx No problem

[UniqueMonique513]

I know that pet stores feed theres blood worms. I think thats gross. I only feed mines the Tetra Tropical pelletz for Cichlids ..n i realized i brought a ghost crab n they ate him the same day i brought him

[Obliv69]

hey bolly, what are your thoughts on live brine shrimp, or 100% frozen brine shrimp blocks, or the 'complete cichlid' frozen foods?

mine live on nls thera, 1mm for most but 3mm for the larger fish. i give them the above mentioned foods purely as a treat maybe 1-2x a week max?

[Obliv69]

posaqua.com.au/products/cichli­d.html

posaqua brand "complete cichlid"

posaqua.com.au/products/frozen­brineshrimp.html

posaqua 100% australian brine shrimp

[bolly12345]

@Obliv69 No problem with brine shrimp mate, like you mentioned only a few times a week

[Obliv69]

i put Spectrum 1mm pellets into a cheap pepper grinder, and grind it down to a powder, filling an old spectrum container with it.

one small pinch and little fry love it, and being spectrum fed from birth gives them a strong and healthy start to life (imo)

[aRoadLesTraveled]

@Obliv69 - I've never tried grinding the NLS pellets - my yellow lab fry pick away at the whole pellets and devour them rather quickly without any trouble at all!

[Obliv69]

@aRoadLesTraveled

even when first released from their mum ?

i usually feed mine powdered nls for the first month, i find that the 1mm pellets are a bit hard for some to chew at times, and being powdered gives them an easy feed for the first few weeks of their life while they gain strength.

might try giving 1mm next time i get fry, see what they do with it. maybe im just overly good to them ;)

[aRoadLesTraveled]

@Obliv69 - Yes, even from day one, they go straight to them and start nibbling away. I'll forward you a video. I think it makes it easier for them to find the food and easier for me to see how much they are actually eating, with the added benefit of having less food going to waste. Of course, yellow lab fry are rather large relative to other types of fry when they come out, so that probably helps. I alternate the NLS pellets with spirulina flakes.

[Obliv69]

@aRoadLesTraveled cheers for the info.

i only have experience raising about 70 electric blue fry (sciaeonochromis fryeri - 3 broods) but i think the lab ceruleus fry are a similar size to my s. fryeri's anyway?

[Obliv69]

@Obliv69 i should mention, i keep my fry in a solid plastic hang-on fry tank, and have a cheap powerhead blowing water through it.

the powder does go everywhere, theyre basically swimming in it. after about 30sec-1min its been blown clear by the powerhead anyway.

[aRoadLesTraveled]

@Obliv69 - Yeah, I would think they would be similar in size. I've had really good luck with my yellow labs this year - 5 broods from one mother this year alone and 2 more broods from two of her oldest offspring :)

[chowwowable]

@bolly12345 Thanks! You should make a video on what type of sand or gravel to use for cichlids.

[bolly12345]

@chowwowable I have mate, Setting up an african tank - setting up your tank. It's in my HOW TO playlist

[95mnbvcxz95]

Yer I get what u mean any I won't rush in to anything strait away it took me ages to build up a large breeding group of dems thanks

[95mnbvcxz95]

Hi Marc I am thinking of selling my mbuna and getting a group of frontosa or a pair of rays what are your thoughts and have u ever considered not doing mbuna keep the vids coming and I hope the business is going well thanks

[bolly12345]

@95mnbvcxz95 Hi mate, Yep I've been there and thought about it BUT.... I realised why I starting keeping them in the 1st place. So I sold most of my stock and bought AC's that are harder to come by and then I was hooked again.

[aRoadLesTraveled]

Thanks for the video, Marc - great info! I didn't have any peas in the freezer, but I tried thawing a few kernels of sweet corn and my yellow labs loved it! Similar to peas, the skin has to be removed, but the guts of the kernels will pop out easily with a little pressure.

[KGTropicals]

hey mark, love your videos!!! I have approx 400 A/Cs and have tried all kinds of foods, I wanted to ask have you ever had the NLS cichlid formula turn your water kind of brownish??? My fish love it but I had to stop feeding them the NLS because it kept making my water look horrible. As soon as i stopped feeding the NLS the water imediatly cleared up.

[bolly12345]

@KGTropicals Hi buddy, I've had that happen when I've only used 1 type of food. Try feeding NLS every other day

[MTomkinson96]

Great vid man:)

[hellooohummingbird]

nice n informative video...

but also tell about feeding discus because my discus dont like anything else than bloodworms

is that is sufficient for them?



[bolly12345]

@hellooohummingbird Hi, Dicuss isn't my strong point but I know a few people that breed dicuss and use a food called Tetra Prima Dicuss

[bolly12345]

@hellooohummingbird haha my spelling sorry discus :)

[hellooohummingbird]

@bolly12345 you don't know about discus and just laughing at you spellings?

disgusting...........

[bolly12345]

@hellooohummingbird Not sure what you're trying to get at here, the video is aimed at feeding African Cichlids. You asked me a question related to discus and even though I dont know an awful lot about them I went out of my way and phoned a friend who breeds them and I got an answer regarding food for them. I wasn't laughing at you I was laughing at my poor spelling of Discus in my original reply to your question!

[hellooohummingbird]

@bolly12345 y not sure? is discus not a type of cichlids fish? anyway sorry if you mind it. i was expecting from you which you even don't know...

[bolly12345]

@hellooohummingbird since you were expecting a reply ;) blood worm is fine to be used as their staple diet, you can vary their diet with foods like previously mentioned tetra prima discus and foods aimed Cichlids such as new life spectrum Cichlid formula and New Era Cichlid

[hellooohummingbird]

@bolly12345 well thanks for you reply

who told you now about blood worms?

as i told you earlier my discus are not taking anything else ....

i have tried a lots of flakes and tolli food which is especially made for discus

further this tetra prima discus food is not available at here local fish shops

[bolly12345]

@hellooohummingbird I went searching on google to try and help you out with this. And I read a few articles regarding their Diet and blood worms was mentioned several times. Are your discus heathly, maintaining weight and breeding? In regards to Tetra Prima Discus this can be ordered online. Where are you from?

[hellooohummingbird]

@bolly12345 I have never purchased anything on-line.

infact once i was trying to buy and that was the case of fraud, i came to know at the last moment...

if you know any trusted site from where i could get this tetra prima discus food then tell me..

[TheHobdenMarina]

@hellooohummingbird if you listened to what he said in the video he said AC's african Cichlids. for aficans this is true, in fact I have experienced first hand what bloodworms will do to them. in terms of Discus a he said it is fine for a staple as their digestive tracts are shorter and can burn through the bloodworm quicker. that being said you should try to get them off of it, as the long term effects of a bloodworm only diet are more then likely detrimental to the health of your fish.

[hellooohummingbird]

@TheHobdenMarina but my fish r not eating anything else

[TheHobdenMarina]

@hellooohummingbird in this case I would try to make them hungry by not feeding for a day or 2 or else soak the food in garlic or mix it with a bit of blood worms. Never hurts to try :) blood worms are just empty calories for fish. Try those methods for a few days and see what happens

[hellooohummingbird]

@TheHobdenMarina I ll try the method of garlic....

and as for mixing with bloodworms had been tried and did not work......

I have never ever listen of burning of digestive track of fish with bloodworm lol...

[foresaken797]

yeah i'll skip days feeding any of my fish, africans, south americans and even just my tropicals too. I mainly do it to make sure i dont over feed them. I also normally just have a enough time to feed once a day comfortably. oh and love your videos too. :)

[bolly12345]

@foresaken797 Hi there, have you noticed a drop in growth and breeding activity when you skip the odd day?

[TheRossiboy]

Great video Marc, it's VERY professional...when I eventually move out I plan to get an African Cichlid tank so these vids will be very helpful to me in the future as I have no experience with Cichlids of any type! once again great vid and keep em coming!

[bolly12345]

@TheRossiboy Hi RossiLaa hehe, thank you for the feedback - when you set the tank up i'll be here if you need some info just like you've helped me out in the past cheers

[TheHobdenMarina]

awesome video Marc, nice to see another video especially from a respected user trying to steer people away from using bloodworms. Good info bud

[bolly12345]

@TheHobdenMarina HIi buddy, yeah blood worms causes all types of problems aye.

[pomiBerceni]

Great info for beginners especially. Keep up the good work!

[bolly12345]

@pomiBerceni Hi Pomi, how's your epic tank doing?

[pomiBerceni]

@bolly12345

Tank's doin' great and the fish have been growing very fast in the last 2 months, since I started a 3 times/day feeding regime :) Thanks for asking! Oh, by the way, tank won AGA 2011 biotope section.

[bolly12345]

@pomiBerceni Wow congrats and well deserved!!!

[letmeshowuhow2stunt]

Some great facts

[bolly12345]

@letmeshowuhow2stunt Much appreciated thank you

[95mnbvcxz95]

Another great vid I know u used to keep ventus and got them to breed but are they ok with demasoni and the like and would they be ok on NLS like my dems thanks keep em comin

[bolly12345]

@95mnbvcxz95 Hi Charlie, I've kept them with adult Dems in the past as Venustus is a Predatory Hap so be careful anything that can fit in their mouths they'll try and eat. NLS should be ok :)

[ryanmartin136]

Bolly gd vid mate not heard of that spirulina givin them black spots i cut bk on that then i use that in flakes.i love to use new era rift lake red cus i only got haps n peacock now they love it.ur dead right callin them pigs they wud eat the hole tub in one if i put it in haha hav to get sum prawns to feed them now was think bout them but didnt no if it b ok thaxs mate

[bolly12345]

@ryanmartin136 Greedt pigs is so true haha, yeah mate chopped up prawns for Haps and Peacocks as a treat now and then is fine :)

[JoshsMbuna]

nice one buddy!



[bolly12345]

@JoshsMbuna Appreciated Josh ty

[JUNAID187]

nice video mate :)

[bolly12345]

@JUNAID187 Thanks Junaid

[MoonFooABC]

Hi is it okay to feed peacocks compost worms? and how about small prawns?

[bolly12345]

@MoonFooABC Hi, from personal experience I wouldn't feed them worms, chopped up prawns as a treat now and then is fine

[GaearGrimsrudd]

i enjoy your vids. I only have shell dwellers right now. Thank you.

[bolly12345]

@GaearGrimsrudd Hi there, what type of shellies are you keeping?

[GaearGrimsrudd]

@bolly12345 i have 8 neolamprologus multifasciatus. very fun to watch.

[uarujoey]

Great video Marc! Keep them coming!

[bolly12345]

@uarujoey Hey Joey, Thanks for the comment :)

[flip12272000]

great video



[bolly12345]

@flip12272000 Cheers glad you liked it

[MrHoney2U]

Good video. I only feed once a day and sometimes every other day.

[bolly12345]

@MrHoney2U Thanks. Just Curious why would you skip feeding for a day? When in the Lake their feeding constantly. I'm not saying your doing it all wrong buddy :)

[check2wice]

@bolly12345 i think this guy is just lazy. i feed my fish twice a day and they grow faster and breed more frequently.

[MrHoney2U]

@bolly12345 Let them process what I feed the day before. Had bloat once or twice before. Just gun shy I guess.

[bolly12345]

@MrHoney2U I can understand were you're coming from pal, have you noticed a drop in growth and breeding activity?

[MrHoney2U]

@bolly12345 I am not breeding any fish just yet and not really any growth slow that I have noticed. Maybe I will try feeding every day just half the amount I normally would. I certainly don't want any drop in growth.

[simoniscool1]

Very good info

[bolly12345]

@simoniscool1 Cheers Simon

[funnymakeslifesunny]

first!! nice video. :)

[bolly12345]

@funnymakeslifesunny Hehe Much appreciated