Frozen Foods?

[timmystood]

Are Malawi Cichlids ok with all the following frozen foods?

Chopped Mussel
Bloodworm
Black Mosqutio Larve
Ghost Shrimp / Mysis

I want to start feeding them a little more variety and these are the frozen foods I buy for my other tropical fish and wandered if they will be OK with my Malawi's?

Cheers
TIMMYSTOOD

 

[BiffMalawi]

My malawis will eat just about anything. I read somewhere though that you can cause Malawi bloat if you feed some to much protein. I would look up each of your fish and see if they are veg or not. Generally a varied diet is the best for all fish. I give mine blood worms as a treat occasionally.

 

[Ferris]

I wouldn't feed any of those to Mbuna, most are herbviores and some are omnivores. They simply cannot process food with that much protein and this is a common cause of "bloat".

I would stick to a good staple diet of a veggie flake/stick with a high Spirinula content.

 

[timmystood]

I just got back from my LFS and brought a frozen 'Malawi Mix' - this is really high in protein though??

It's green, I don't know if anyone else has used it? It's made by Ruto

 

[Ferris]

What are the ingredients?

 

[timmystood]

It doesn't say

 

[Ferris]

I looked it up on the net and found plenty of references to it but nothing that listed the ingredients. The problem is that there also fish from like Malawi (like Haplochromis) that are carnivores and because of that i would be slightly wary of something labeled "Malawi mix" as this presumably tries to cater for them aswell.

Diet is extremely important for Mbuna, if it was me i would stick to the veggie flake/sticks. Brine shrimp in small amounts fed occasionally will not do any harm, especially if you have any omnivores in your tank.

Hope that helps

 

[Mbuna Dave]

I use a Malawi Mix from Ocean Nutrition.

The mix is:

Beefheart 30%
Mysis 24%
Artemia 8%
Krill 8%
Spinach 12%
Calanus 8%
Bloodworm 10%

 

[Ferris]

That list of ingredients would concern me, beefheart and bloodworm are about the 2 worst things for herbivore Mbuna species. Unfortunately they don't know that and will eat anything offered but a high protein diet is the major cause of bloat.

 

[timmystood]

I fed them a cube of it this morning and they all loved it.. I'm concerned though if it'll harm them

 

[Ferris]

I wouldn't feed mine anything that i didn't know the content of, too big a risk IMO. If it contains beefheart or bloodworm, that's bad. Like i said, Mbuna will eat anything, whether its good for them is a different matter.

 

[brewyn]

I use the same frozen mix for my happs along with cockles prawns etc, (not all at the same time I hasten to add) I use the vegetarian frozen for the mbuna. I feel some photos coming on.

 

[brewyn]

This is what I feed to my malawi, notice the pack of frozen food is green, this is the vegetarian, you can also buy it in the spinach variety which is also green (darker green packaging).

The following are various foods I feed to my happs, notice how the frozen malawi mix is brown (meat)

 

[brewyn]

I would also point out that mbuna in the wild do eat crustations and other fish etc, they are an opportunist fish and will take virtualy anything you give them, I have been known to wash the gravy off my processed peas (left on the plate from the sunday roast) and scrape them into my tank, they go down a treat!!!
I also from time to time feed my mbuna bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp and vice versa, my happs vegie matter, this is natural feeding, and it is what they would do in the wild. I suppose the real harm would happen if you constantly fed them a totally unsuitable diet over a very lengthy period.
On the other hand, when I 1st started to keep malawis (10 years ago), I did not have a clue about the different dietary needs of these fish, the food consisted in those days of whatever came off the shelf 1st, and my fish thrived without any of this bloat, etc.

 

[Ferris]

I suppose the real harm would happen if you constantly fed them a totally unsuitable diet over a very lengthy period

Spot on, treats and supplements are fine, in fact very beneficial. The Malawi mix content seems to be far more appropriate to Haps as a main diet, veggie content is essential for most Mbuna.

One small point, only some Mbuna like labs eat insects etc in the wild, many are herbivore only. (Yep, ferris is nit-picking again )