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Food for africans


smidey

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hi all, here's a debate topic.....

i got my electric yellows from my lfs where i was advised to feed them sprilina etc & protein once a week (bloodworms or similar). The fryeri that i got from Dan, he advised to feed them spirilina only. the info below says that the fryeri are carnivores (meat eaters) & electric yellows are omnivores (meat & plant eaters). obviously the opinions of these people are the current info for these fish, anyone only feed meat to fryeri? how much protein is feed to the e yellows?

Fryeri link

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1257

Labiochromis link

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1669

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I wouldn't suggest having your fryeri living on Spirulina only.. I feed most of my Africans on a product called Granumeat put out by Sera.. you think oh yeah mammal products when you think of the name "Granumeat", I did when I first saw it, but it is actually put out especially for Eastern African Carnivorous Cichlids and is Fishery and Shrimp Meal base with spirulina algae. My Electric Yellows also get some of this but my other Mbuna are fed on a Spirulina based diet.

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Electric Yellows....

Before concluding, let me say a few words about this fish's behavior in both the wild as well as captivity. L. caeruleus is an omnivore, feeding primarily upon insects, snails, and mollusks; however, in the aquarium, this fish can be fed a wide assortment of foods. I personally recommend a good Spirulina based flake food with occassional frozen food supplements, or alternatively, The European Shrimp Mix. These insectivores wander through their rocky biotope, never lingering at any particular spot, and it seems they are tolerated in the territories of most other species.

From...

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php

Diet

Omnivore

in the aquarium.....

they will accept good quality flake, pellets and frozen or live brine shrimp. Spirulina in the form of flake or pellet (HBH Soft and Moist Spirulina) should also be included in their diet.

in the wild....

they feed mainly on insects, snails, and other invertebrates it picks from the algae.

From....

http://www.wetpetz.com/elecyellow.htm

Electric Blues.....

Diet

Omnivore/Piscivore

in the aquarium....

they are not a fussy feeder and will eat pellets, flake and frozen brine shrimp. HBH Soft and Moist Krill is a good food for them.

in the wild....

ffeeds on small fish, primarily juvenile Utaka. They are often seen above Kampango (Bagrus meridionalis) nests during the catfish's breeding season where large schools of Utaka fry seek protection - the catfish chases most predators. They also feed on insect larvae and small crustaceans.

http://www.wetpetz.com/elecblue.htm

Also the term is Piscivore, as in eats fish. Not carnivore eat meat. Big difference.

I think the main thing is a balanced diet. I always feed my yellows a mix of 2 types of cichlid pellets, spirulina flake, HBH Cichlid flake & mysis shrimp.

Electric blues when I had them; pretty much the same.

ps; I would never recommend feeding bloodworms to Africans.

Frenchy :D

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lol You can chase your head around for days and days and days looking up profiles on the net finding contridicting ones and never actually get anywhere I dont bother, I also dont really bother with overseas forums like cichlid-forum for feeding advice because they have food we cant get.. Just ask the advice of the people in nz keeping the fish you have.

I feed my fish mainly spirilina but its mixed with about a fifth brine shrimp flake.. They also get lettuce cooked pea's and a home make food I make with shrimp, spirilina, garlic and all sorts of other good stuff in it.. And haven't had any problems so far.

Oh and would like to reitterate what frenchy has said its probably not a good idea to feed bloodworms to any fish let alone africans, some people have had no bad experiences but from the general reserach around the place its not worth the risk plenty of better things to feed your fish..

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Hi Ryan.

What is the problem with bloodworm? I give my cichlids the occasional feed with it and have never had any problems. I would like to know as if its as bad as you guys make out then Ill stop feeding it to them. Thanks

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Theres been 3 threads from memory where frenchy has shown up with all his info and convinced me not to feed my fish bloodworms.. I cant remember all the info if your interested go through or use the search function or im sure frenchy will jump on and explain it all..

I feed alot of stuff and basically africans get bloat so its just not worth the risk I know people who feed it and you obvoiusly do without any problems but yeah I dont and dont recommend others do simply because to me somethings are just not worth the risk I mean id rather not feed it than loose a whole tank of expensive fish..

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The information I gave on bloodworms came form an Ad Konnings book{editor}. Enjoying Cichlids.

If I was to use Blood worms, I think Hikari are the cleanest. They claim to sterilise them & have vitamins etc. {Brad still gets a rash from touching these to, though.}

My bad :oops: carnivore means to eat flesh. If it eats other fish, that is flesh too. Used to using the term piscivore.

Funny one uses piscivore, the other carnivore, from the same website.

Frenchy :D

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I'm with Ryan on this I lost a whole tank full of fryeri from feeding lots good hearty food that this carnivore should thrive on.Trouble is the nitrate levels in high density aquariums is useally not as good as the lake and the fish get stressed and die from bloat so a spirulina diet is a good way to keep the wastes and therefore nitrates low and as we all know the slimey meaty stuff is well known for causing bloat .I was losing several 8 month old fish a day until I switched to spirulina based diet with very occasional supplements of something a bit tastier .Smidey I only said that I feed a spirulina based diet not only spirulina they always need variety .spirulina is loaded with protein anyway.

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.Smidey I only said that I feed a spirulina based diet not only spirulina they always need variety .spirulina is loaded with protein anyway.

you're right Dan, i am & will be feeding spiulina etc with a small feed of blood worms once a week or fortnight. this was just a debate & question thread to see what others were doing. :D the fryeri are getting a little colour now.

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  • 4 weeks later...

feeling guilty about not offering my fish a range of food after reading this thread I thought I would sneak them some brine shrimp when I wasn't looking unfortunately what I had learnt about bloat last time hadn't changed ,at least not for my tanks anyway, so after almost wearing out a net scooping out dead inch long dolphin juvi's I decided several things ,one being that spirulina may seem like a crappy diet but does have an up side and that the dog is not such a bad pet after all .

bloat :47 me :0.

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