Cichlid feeding plan help!

[Robder]

Hi all...

It's all change in my tank this week as I've introduced a big batch of cichlids, along with new filtration system.

This means I need to up my game and get into a new rhythm with feeding for colour enhancement and I don't really know what I'm doing here.

How often should I feed them and how much? Is Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun enough?

Also - what to feed them? I've bought the following:

• Tetra Cichlid XL Sticks: I've heard these have little in the way of nutritional value.
• NT Labs Algae Wafers: Originally bought for pleco, but I doubt I'll replace when done (see Northfin).
• Hikari Cichlid Excel: Good spirulina food for boosting greens and yellows.
• Northfin Premium: For reds blues and oranges. It sinks so good for plecos also.

I hear Northfin Premium is the recommended one, but I have the 3mm pellets (too big?). They keep spitting them out and definitely don't consume within 1-2mins. Is this ok?

For ref: here's the quota (18 fish in total):
1 x Bristlenose Pleco, 1 x Lake Victoria Synodontis Catfish, 1 x Red Tail Shark, 5 x OB Peacock Cichlids, 2 x Aulonocara Strawberry Peacock Cichlids, 1 x Aulonocara Usisya Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Electric Blue Aulonocara Nyassae Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Sunshine Aulonocara Nyassae Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Aulonocara Stuartgranti Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Aulonocara Red Ruby Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Aulonocara Gold Peacock Cichlid, 1 x Mdoka White Lips Cichlid, 1 x Dragon Blood Peacock Cichlid.

THANKS!

 

[MaloK]

I'm not familiar with peacocks, They are omnivorous, but are primarily herbivorous, I would start with 2-3 feeding per day all they can get for 2-3 minutes. It might be a little difficult for the pleco to get his share tho.

What happened to Monday and Wednesday... Occasional fasting days are good, but I don't think peacocks requires that much. 2-3 times per month is enough. And also a couple days where you slowly feed them 6-7 times or until everybody poops are also welcome once in a while. The feeling of total food plenty once in a while has great effect on troops moral.

If your pellets are too big for the moment, you can use a pill crusher to reduce the size of bites. Avoid too much fatty food too often, brine shrimp, bloodworms, larvae, crustaceans, and small insects can be given on a regular basis as long as they are drowned with a lots of veggies.

Hope you post a couple pics of it, really curious to see that

 

[Colin_T]

Aulonocara cichlids are predators. Fish and shrimp form the main part of their diet.