Foods?

[Boupette]

What are the best foods for any species of Pelvicachromis? Is there any to to avoid?

 

[tjudy]

Pelvicachromis are detritus feeders. They do not eat a lot of invertebrate (meaty) foods in their natural diet. Avoid feeding lots of worms and such, though the occasioanly use of frozen blood worm will be a nice treat. The staple diet should be vegetable-based. I use a combination of flake: 40% veggie, 45% basic tropical flake and 5% earthworm or shrimp flake. The protien in the flake has been processed more, so I am not as afraid of it causing a problem as I am feeding a lot of frozen foods for protein. If I have bbs hatched I will feed it to all my Pelvicachromis a couple days a week. I will feed live black worms once in a very long while (not more than once a month, and then only a couple as a treat).

 

[Boupette]

Woups! I tought my question was a bit silly but it's not at all. I was giving them (Pulcher, Subocellatus, Taeniatus) a least 3 times a week some frozen shrimps and bloodworms!!! And my babies too!!!

What about live daphnies once a week? Too much? So I will cool it down!!

What's could be the danger to feed them like I did?

Thanks!

 

[tjudy]

The danger is that a high protein diet may result in a digestive system problem like dropsy. I will admit that it is a rare thing in Pelvicachromis, and that in the past I have fed a lot of high protein foods. However, ever since getting smacked around by people who know a lot more about the genus than I do, I switched over to more vegetable-based foods. My fish are more colorful and breed more regularly since switching.

 

[Boupette]

Thanks a lot Tjudy,

that's exactly what I'm gonna do too! And in fact, it's less expansive this way and my Pelvis are gonna be more colorfull and healthier too. Big deal!

 

[Adam - Sydney]

I have kept Nigerian red taeniatus as have a few of my associates and we all have problems with diseases such as hole in the head, or internal diseases. Diet may be the explanation as everyone i knows feeds them meaty foods lots. I am going to change the diet of mine now. Before i change it too much im just curious as to where the information came from. Do you have a reference to a webpage or book.

Adam

Edit: If this is the case what do you feed fry?

 

[tjudy]

My information comes mostly from talking to several long-time hobbyists. One particular conversation on the feeding of Pelvicachromis took place at the ACA convention in Denver two summers ago, and included both Anton Lamboj and Oliver Lucanus. These two were in agreement with the assessment that veggie food is better than meaty food. Anton Lamboj also makes this statement several times in his book.

My fry get a higher level of protein than adults. But they are also actively growing fast. I used to feed a lot of bbs, but have switched to less bbs and more Cyclopseze. I use the frozen Cyclopseze. I have found that some baby fish need trained onto the frozen food. I do this by mixing live bbs with the frozen food. As with any frozen, I thaw, strain and rinse... but I need to use a very fine net as the cyclops are as small as bbs. As soon as the fry are large enough to take crushed flake (1/4 inch or so), I mix crushed veggie flake with the cyclops. At 3/4 inch the fry are on the same diets as the adults. That is how I do it...

 

[Randall]

Feeding Pelvicachromis

Hello all,

Ted is absolutely right! As a rule, cichlids of the tribe chromidotilapini, which includes the genus Pelvicachromis, are detritus feeders. Through pecking in the substrate, on rocks, plants, etc., they injest much vegetable matter, in addition to aufwuchs. I believe Anton Lamboj would call them nonspecialized omnivores. To keep our chromidotilapiines happy and healthy, vegetable matter should be included in their diet, and rich, fatty foods (like meaty foods) should be fed sparingly.

Good luck!

All the best,

Randall Kohn

 

[Adam - Sydney]

Thank you for the replies. This could explain more than a few things. I am taking an assumption that Nannochromis fall under the same family chromidotilapini. I didnt want to sound skeptical of you Ted, I wanted to get another opinion or a reference in regards to the info before i changed it for the fish.

Thanks again
Adam

 

[tjudy]

Yes... Nanochromis would be included. Pelvicachromis, Nanochromis, Benitochromis, Chromidotilapia, Limbochromis, Divandu, Parananochromis, Teleogramma, and Thysochromis are all in that tribe. The Teleogramma are more specialized invertebrate feeders.