[jbru70]

These are my 4 month old PB's Ifeed them 20 goldfish a day. I keep them in a 6' long 125 gallon tank, fluval 405, 3 powerheads, fluval 4plus and 2 wavemakers.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=CrZbCV9srX8

[ANDONI]

WOW, very nice looking fish.

[Morledzep]

are you planning on feeding them live feeders forever? now is the time to start offering tilapia fillet and market shrimp before they get fixated. the sooner you get them on already killed pieces of fish the better.

i don't believe that the goal is to get them on fish kibble, but eating only live and only goldfish isn't necessarily good for them.

[jbru70]

Morledzep, on 03 January 2011 - 03:17 AM, said:

are you planning on feeding them live feeders forever? now is the time to start offering tilapia fillet and market shrimp before they get fixated. the sooner you get them on already killed pieces of fish the better.

i don't believe that the goal is to get them on fish kibble, but eating only live and only goldfish isn't necessarily good for them.

As you know Cichla are picky eaters. They love the feeders and refuse to eat anythin else. I try to gut-load the feeders with pellets, flake and bloodworms before I feed them to my PB's

[Morledzep]

you are absolutely right, i know cichla well. i have successfully trained 10" and larger cichla to eat something other than live, but it's a long battle and i lost one of them along the way.

the secret is to only give them enough feeders to keep them alive.. and offer other food every day. it's easiest to start with market shrimp. and since your cichla are still small you can buy the smallest, least expensive white shrimp the grocery store has. chop them into bite sized pieces and drop a little garlic juice on them (just a touch, no need to go wild). and offer to the cichla twice a day till they start eating them.. usually takes a few days. if they don't eat any shrimp in a week or 10 days give them enough feeders to make em fat and happy, and then start over.

once they start eating shrimp adding other types of fish like tilapia, cod, catfish and such will be easy. if you feel the need after that, you can do something similar to change them on to fish kibble.

[fish junkie]

Morledzep is absolutely right i feed mine a wide range of fish ,shrimp ,krill , blood worms and occasionally feeders . Feeders are like junk food to a cichla . Unless you can supply everything that they forage on in the wild which is mostly fish, crustaceans and bugs. and give them that variety every day they will just get fat loose color and not be the fish you initially wanted a colorful predator.
I personally non live train my cichla by feeding one feeder at a time wait until its gone and in a fishes belly then feed another do this through the entire feeding. They will eventually attack anything that hits the water repeat this at every feeding for a couple of weeks. and then start the next phase throw in a feeder , and then a krill (i use freeze dried soaked in tank water from the feeder tank it works pretty good) . The cichla will usually attack it and spit it out, and then another fish will attack it ( Oscars in the tank will be your best friend at this point they will eat the krill the bass ignore ) then throw in another feeder, but only after the bass have given up on the krill they will hesitate sometimes so its easier to keep the krill in the same cup with the feeders . Add a few more one at a time and every once in a while throw in a krill,until your regular feeding period is done every day repeat YOU have to be more stubborn then the cichla ( its natural for me im a taurus lol) just repeat this until they start taking the krill it may take a few weeks they will do it eventually then just add more krill then feeders and eventually they will hit the krill just as hard and then chomp it down and come back for more. it works the same way with every type of food you plan to feed .

The only reason i use krill is because most of the feeders here in utah when guppies are too small are goldfish and krill are remotely close to the same color. also they will make the reds in cichla glow like a fire truck .

[Hotspot]

Hi,

I'd stay away from goldfish as a steady diet for ANY predator. Once in a while goldfish are ok, but not frequently. Goldfish contain thiaminase which destroys vitamin B1 which can lead to malnutrition regardless how much vitamin B1 you add . Just take other feeders when using them, as already mentioned by the others a varied diet containing dead stuff AND occasionally feeders (predators need some prey from time to time, my snakehead is not really alive if he don't gets it once in a while) is best.

Nice fish btw. .

greets

Peter

This post has been edited by Hotspot: 16 January 2011 - 12:50 PM