Feeding African Cichlid Fish

Feeding African Cichlid Fish

For most beginners the simplicity of raising fish is something that is considered wrong in most cases. African cichlid fish are not that easy to raise and they can not keep staying healthy with regular food that you buy at the pet store. Not every single African cichlid type will need the exact same diet. The reason for this is that there are four African cichlid fish categories, arranged by eating habits. This brings us to the different types of African cichlid fish: omnivorous, carnivorous, herbivorous and micro predators.

In most cases the species that are meat eaters or plant eaters can also receive food from other good groups. You should never overdue this. In the event that you are faced with carnivorous African cichlid fish and you feed them a diet that is suitable for the herbivore group the fish will survive for a while but will become sick after some time. Even before the purchase of the fish there is a need to properly understand everything linked with their diets.

Cichlid flake food stands out as really good in most situations but we do recommend that you take a close look at ingredients used. Look out for food that includes much fat and fish meal. You do have to avoid any type of meat that comes from warm blooded animals. Frozen or live fish can be used as food for cichlids even if the African cichlid will not show this as a main diet. If you raise cichlids that stand out as carnivorous then you can use vegetation based flake food together with supplementation of brine shrimp and/or krill.

If the African cichlid fish is to show orange, reddish or yellow coloration you do need to add pigment rich food to its diet. There is an easy way to see if there is enough pigmentation in the food that you use. If there is not you will notice the fish losing coloring.

Besides all that was written above we do recommend that you are also careful about something else. Many beginners tend to overfeed fish. Always remember that a cichlid will not require so much food. Fish can die when you overfeed them. Only feed your fish a maximum of 3 times each day and a quantity that can be consumed in 30 seconds. This is enough.