Underweight Labidochromis Caeruleus

[demasonisrule]

Hey everyone, about 1 and a half years ago I moved onto the salty side of the hobby, but for whatever reason I've kept my 2 cichlid tanks (10g multi and 55g mbuna) up and running, the multi tank has always been well, never a problem there. The mbuna tank used to house only L. caeruleus, but a few months ago I added a trio of female Melanochromis auratus. Both species of fish basically ignored each other completely, I never saw any interspecific fighting. About 2 weeks ago, I went to my LFS to get some stuff for my salty tank, and I just happened to walk by a cichlid tank and fiound myself thinking about the tank that really got me into fish keeping (the 55), when I noticed these two little yellow souls in the corner of the tank, skinny as a rail, and somehow now they're in my tank.

I've been feeding them 2-3 times a day of cichlid veggie flakes. I know that they are omnivorous, so should I add some frozen brine/mysis/bloodworms into their diet? After 2 weeks of the flakes alone they haven't fattened up at all, wondering what I should do? So far the three M. auratus have been angels and have ignored them for the most part. They are both females BTW. I will try to get some pics up later, thanks in advance.

 

[elisew]

If you can, I would strongly recommend this stuff:
http/www.zmsystems.co.uk/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=prodshow&ref=largepremgran&sid=6ya2o40q937h4awnx69x7728n4vgtd41

I feed all of my fish, including my Peacock and Mbuna fry on this stuff now and they absolutely love it, most people on another forum that I also use buy and feed this to their malawi/mbuna/haps and have had the same opinions as myself.

Don`t worry that it says 'Large', it can be ground down very easily between your fingers so would be good for any size (even fry)

Do please be careful and very vigilant in relation to the new labs that are now in your tank......worms/internal parasites are a possible cause for the skinny look of the fish so you need to be ready to act IF there are any further symptoms or problems with your other fish

 

[demasonisrule]

I would love to get some of that food, but I'm in the US
As far as worms go, I've learned from my salty-ness that you should quarantine everything before hand, so I'm pretty certain they don't have any worms. I don't think that they are unhealthy other than the fact that they are severely malnourished. I'm basically just looking to fatten them up, make them totally healthy.

 

[elisew]

That's a shame that you can't get the premium granular


If it were me I would feed a mix of flake, frozen mysis/krill and chopped prawns and i'd feed small amounts but often throughout the day. It doesn't take long for females that have starved while they've held for approx 28 days to get some weight back on so your labs should be ok

 

[markandhisfish]

good sound advice from lisa there . i can also vouch for the quality of the zm premium granular , i feed it to my malawis too .

 

[rifty]

new life spectrum is an amazing food and available in the US too no need for any additional foods needed just this will do the job