Bedge Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Was wondering if there are any foods that can be prepared or made at home? I was reading last night the salmon fillet my help to produce red pigments and increase colour. Is this type of thing correct? I have also read to much protine creates hole in the head. Hmm ... food for thought (hahah, i made a joke!). Yeah - so i am wondering if there is anything else i can give him which he will benifit from besides what can be puchased from LFS. ta. P.S. I give him feeders very rarley, have heard to many scary stories! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeOfYabon Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I give some European Shrimp/Prawn Mix to my Oscar a couple of times a week (minus the spirulina). He loves it and it's a good way of adding some liquid vitamins to his diet. Other people have suggested soaking regular fish food in liquid vitamins however my Oscar doesn't like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Be careful with custom diets, especially those containing seafoods, as I know some CA/SA Cichlids, T. meeki (Firemouth) in my experience, have what I guess is as an 'intolerance' to them. I've lost 3 Firemouth to a custom mix food that contained prawns (The typical seafood/vegies/spiraluna/vitamins/gelatine mix) and others here on ACE and other boards I frequent have also. Personally I got over the custom food / live food phase and just stick to a solid mix of Pellets and basic vegetables (Peas, Cucumber, Zucchini, Pumpkin) now. I also mix half a beefheart cube as a treat every weekend, and earthworms/mealworms will soon be added to the treat list. The key is really having a large variety of quality products. Many members of these boards will recommend New Life Spectrum, and I would be using them too, but being on a budget I now feed all Hikari products to my Cichlids, alternating each meal between Staple, Cichlid Gold, Cichlid Excel and BioGold+. I believe you'll get the best colours out of your fish by feeding them a quality staple diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedge Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 Hi! So it is safe to feed them peas and that type of stuff? Thats what I am more interested in feeding him, besides the custom recipes. Likewise, I would be to worried about causing more harm than good. What is the spectrum of fresh veges that they can have? Is there anything that they cant have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Hi! So it is safe to feed them peas and that type of stuff? Thats what I am more interested in feeding him, besides the custom recipes. Likewise, I would be to worried about causing more harm than good. What is the spectrum of fresh veges that they can have? Is there anything that they cant have? I believe anything that isn't citrus/acid based, I've tried and had some success with the following. Lettuce, Cucumber, Pumpkin, Zucchini, Peas (I skin them, and they all love peas!). They're all the regulars most people will use I believe, out of those I found the most successful are Pumpkin and Peas, and my Cichlids that prefer the vegetable diets will go for Zucchini and Cucumber. Lettuce was a big failure but I understand clipping it in the tank for a day to be picked at can be successful. It's really preference thing that will vary from fish to fish. For example none of my Bristlenose will eat Zucchini or Cucumber, but in my planted tank they all go berserk over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedge Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 Great!!! I just gave him some cucumber and he was delighted! He put on a beautiful color show, and quickly reverted back to his normal state when I dropped in a pellet! tee heeh ... so thats great advise. thank you. I assumed baby spinich would be ok? I like the idea of clipping it to the side of the tank ..... goes well with my enrichment quest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I assumed baby spinich would be ok? Would be good, yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeOfYabon Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Be careful with custom diets, especially those containing seafoods, as I know some CA/SA Cichlids, T. meeki (Firemouth) in my experience, have what I guess is as an 'intolerance' to them. I've lost 3 Firemouth to a custom mix food that contained prawns (The typical seafood/vegies/spiraluna/vitamins/gelatine mix) and others here on ACE and other boards I frequent have also. Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakes Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I have also read to much protine creates hole in the head. As far as i know, poor water quality is the cause of Hole in the Head disease. As for vegies, my Americans love par-boiled skinned peas the best, but i’m lazy and they only get it as an occasional treat! I don’t think lettuce has much nutritional value, some of the Chinese greens might be better, or endive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeOfYabon Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 As far as i know, poor water quality is the cause of Hole in the Head disease. There's a great article on HITH and HLLE in the latest Australian Aquarium Magazine. It's a good read. Cheers, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I don’t think lettuce has much nutritional value, some of the Chinese greens might be better, or endive. Neither do I, but I understand that having it in the tank as a snack may save your live plants if you're keeping omnivorous Cichlids with them. Either way none of my fish really go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Bit late to the party but I feed my vieja sp fish 3mm NLS Thera+A as a stable pellet with treats of pumpkin, zuchini and peas vege wise, meat wise frozen krill & mysis shrimp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedge Posted April 1, 2008 Author Share Posted April 1, 2008 Do you all give your scaled ones multivitamins via diet / food? If so, how and what is the best brand? And how important would you all consider spirualina powder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Prepared foods are already fortified with vitamins & spirulina, especially premium foods. Really you'd only use those things if you make your own DIY food, which isn't really needed these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeOfYabon Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Prepared foods are already fortified with vitamins & spirulina, especially premium foods. Really you'd only use those things if you make your own DIY food, which isn't really needed these days. Yes, there is a bit of a debate whether they are of any use. I personally use Boyd Vita-chem which I sneakily got from the US (not available locally). It is a "concentrated vitamin solution for fish and other aquarium inhabitants". I have heaps if you want a sample (PM me). See this for more product info. There is a product by Sera called Fishtamins. I have heard of someone using plain old pentavite available from any chemist. Cheers, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedge Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 Ohh! So what is the debate? Just weather is works or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 well there are obviously vitamins & minerals in whatever animal/plant you are blending up to make the food in the first place - just like with human supplements if the diet is right you don't need extras put in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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