# Cichlid Feeding guideline



## sabv (Jul 9, 2010)

Hi,

I have around 40 cichlids (mostly less than 2 inches and four or five adults). I am looking for feeding guidelines. I have NLS grains. On the box, it suggests feeding them 2 to 3 times a day. One of the breeders advised to feed only once a day. I am afraid, if we feed too less than larger fish might eat smaller fish if hungry. If I feed too frequently, then water will get affected.

Thanks for your help.

Sabv


----------



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Experiment with how much you gotta feed, after a feeding, if there is food leftover (10 mins is sufficient) then fish it out and reduce your feedings accordingly, usually when they are still hungry, they will hover at the front of the tank waiting for more food (this is if they are accustomed to the tank and you as their "food supplier"), If they get fat then reduce how much you feed them. If they get skinny then increase the amount. 2 times a day is fine.


----------



## carbonlist (Nov 8, 2009)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> Experiment with how much you gotta feed, after a feeding, if there is food leftover (10 mins is sufficient) then fish it out and reduce your feedings accordingly, usually when they are still hungry, they will hover at the front of the tank waiting for more food (this is if they are accustomed to the tank and you as their "food supplier"), If they get fat then reduce how much you feed them. If they get skinny then increase the amount. 2 times a day is fine.


Sorry Philip (10mins) is WAYYY TOOOO MUCH!!! I have kept african cichlids for 2.5 years now and my uncle has kept them for 10+ years. I adopted his routine and we feed 2 times a day (2 mins of eating time).

Scoop out the rest after 2 mins in the beginning. Eventually you'll get the hang on how much to feed them.


----------



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

He has a pretty large discrepancy in the sizes of his fish. Guessing adults are 4"+, quite intimidating when you didn't even hit 2 inches yet. The ones you gave me, some of them waited around for the bigger ones I got 4"+ to eat first, and then they came out to eat later. Took a while maybe around 10mins, but they ate it all. If all the fish are on the same level of competitiveness in terms of feeding then it's fine.


----------



## sabv (Jul 9, 2010)

Thanks. 

I notice that since there are only four fish which are 3+ inches, they can't get to all the grain that is dropping so the smaller fish also get the share but I am not sure if they all get to eat within a few minutes. I am experimenting with dropping grains in different parts of tank so that everybody has a fair chance. 
The food is gone within 3 minutes. Also, I put some flakes immediately after the grain to ensure that the flakes are around a little longer for smaller fish. 

Does that seem alright or should I not mix grain with flakes?


----------



## TJM (Dec 23, 2009)

A varied diet is good. I do 2 minutes in the morning and 2 minutes about half an hour before lights out, spirulina flake and NLS pellets. Brine once every 3 weeks to a month. Occasionally I'll not feed at all for one day, maybe once every week and a half to two weeks as it lets their digestive system catch up and helps avoid bloat (or at least that's what I tell myself). Haven't lost any of my first 16 which I introduced over a month about a year ago.


----------



## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

In my opinion, there is a difference between feeding growing fry/juveniles and adults. When fish are growing, I tend to feed a lot, both in amount and frequency. This of course, means more attention to water quality, through larger more frequent water changes.
Having said that, I have an aquaintance at Martin Mills who helped develop their Profishent line of pellets, and when he spoke at our club and interesting point he made was that if you reduce a fishes intake by 70% from the maximum it can handle it will still grow, albeit much more slowly. This applies more to commercial foods which are far more nutrient dense than live/fresh foods.
When I am growing out angels, I feed very heavily in order to get them to sellable size as quickly as possible. It means daily water changes of 60 to 70%. However, we are talking about spawns that can number up to 400 fry.


----------

