What Food For My Malawis?

[Go_fish]

Just wondered on the best type of food for my Malawi tank (saulosis, yellow labs & lombardi)

LFS suggest:

Algae flake food

Frozen krill & brine shrimp


Any comments?

Want to make sure these little gus are happy!

Thanks

 

[adambrum]

Most people use new life spectrum pellets.

I use osi mixed flake as its the same food the importer of my w/c fish uses ,cant fault it.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I feed my yellow labs three foods: normal fish flakes, spirolina flakes and a mix of brine shrimp and blood worms (frozen and thawed). I think this is the best way to go since they can get everything they may need. I also never scrape or remove algea from the back of my tank (not that there is alot anyways, but...) because they love it. I also use the flake foods most often and the frozen foods once weekly. The spirolina flakes seem to sink pretty fast, so I feed slowly. I also have used cichlid pellets or sticks with good results in place of the normal flakes. My fish are sort of inbetween sizes right now as far as those pellets or sticks go and so I am waiting for them to get big enough for the large sized ones.

 

[KingKenny]

I've always been under the impression that bloodworm was a no-go due to malawi bloat?

 

[Druchii]

CORRECT king kenny

bloodworm contains too much 'meaty' fat' which the malawi's can not digest and it CAN trigger bloat....

People say that it is down to the amaount of protein, thats not quite true, alot of the food you feed them will contain higher levels of protein, just different TYPE'S of protein which they CAN digest without problems

 

[Ferris]

It's specifically "animal" protein that you must avoid. The occasional bit of brine shrimp won't do any harm and of course is does depend on the species, not all Mbuna are Herbivores.

With a mixed tank, the simple answer is to stick to a staple diet of a spirunla rich flake/pellet and mix in a few treats like brine shrimp once in a while. Feeding Omnivores a veggie based diet won't do them any harm but regular feeding of high animal protein foods to Herbivores can prove fatal.

Mbuna will pretty much eat anything you put in the tank so don't fall into the trap of thinking if they like it - it must be good for them.