Dry foods - what works?

[Mike Wise]

I am curious about the dry foods that you use. Most of the products I've tried are eagerly eaten by my other dwarfs, etc. but not the apistos. I've tried many different pellets, granules, and flakes over the years. Back in the 70's and 80s, I used Aquarien flakes and the apistos loved it. I also used a "frog brittle" granule that I got from a friend who was working on genetics studies with Zebra Danios. The apistos were crazy about it. Well, Aquarien changed its formula and the apistos ignored it. I can't get "frog brittle" anymore, or at least in small quantities (< 50 lbs) - if it's the same product. It also was very messy if overfed. None of the products that I've used in the past 10 years are really eagerly eaten by my apistos. They'll eat anything if not fed anything else, but I'm looking for something that they willingly eat. I'm looking for a suppliment to their live/frozen diet just for variety.

 

[Tom C]

Hi Mike,

I use TetraDiscus (small, red bits/granules).
I crush them a little between my fingers for the fry, the adults eat them as they are.
I've never kept an Apistogramma that doesn't like these very much: even wild fish, straight from the Amazon, take them immediately.
Small pieces are also taken eagerly by all my Nannostomus and Characidae, and even my small shoal of Corydoras (NB! Not kept together with apistos!) loves this food.

 

[Bunnie1978]

Brine shrimp flake from www.angelsplus.com
They take it almost as eagerly as live brine shrimp.

 

[Anubias Design]

I use Ocean Nutrition Community Formula flakes and NLS pellets. They take both quite well.
Mark

 

[slimbolen99]

I've had some success with Tetra Cichlid Crisps that I crush up. My wild apistos devour it. Also use decapsulated brine shrimp with a lot of success, I just have to be careful not to over feed.

 

[langosh]

All my domestic forms of apistogramma accept dry food but they love especially Hikari granules - I can recommend Hikari Tropical Micro Pellets or Hikari Tropical Micro Wafers…

Roman

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I use the Red Astax Crumb from TA Aquaculture in the UK.
I must admit I now use so little dried food, that I usually throw most of it away every 2 years, when I buy some new.

http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Dried_Foods.htm

Analysis: Protein 53%, Fat 13%, NFE 14.7%, crude fibre 0.6%, Ash 10.7%. Phosphorus 1·9%

Vitamins:
Vitamin A - 30,000 IE/kg
Vitamin D3 - 3,000 IE/kg
Vitamin E - 400 mg/kg
Vitamin C (Stable) - 600 mg/kg
Astaxanthin 80 mg/kg.

cheers Darrel

 

[bigbird]

Evening,
I use the Sera GVG mix with tidbits. Flake food with fried shrimp , etc. The Apistos just love this. cheers jk

 

[John S]

It took me about a year of trial and error but I found 3 flake and 3 pellets that my apistos will eat.
Flake
Sera GVG flake with tidbits
Aquatrol Spirulina 20
Tetra Cichlid Crips
Pellet
Hikari Sinking Gold
Hikari Sinking Carnivore
Sera O-nip tablets

 

[blueblue]

MIKE: There are a couple of interesting Asian (Japan and Taiwan)
brands which work for my apistos (wildcaught, European tank-bred,
Asian tank-bred). Please let me know if you're interested.

 

[jose_vogel]

I use 4 varieties from New Life Spectrum:

1) One with garlic
2) One for promoting colour
3) Another for promoting growth
4) Standard one
5) For finicky fish

As you know almost 90% of my fishes are wildcaught and I´ve no problem.

 

[dwarfpike]

A local apisto breeder I used to work with used Cyclopese for both fry and adults almost exclusively. Not sure if freeze-dried counts as dry foods though, and I haven't heard of anyone else using it ...