Priscacara Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 G'day, I'm needing confirmation on whether the latest NLS food I have bought is suitable for my Africans (saulosi, cobwe and other dwarves, frontosa and lemon cichlids). I usually use NLS Cichlid Formula 1mm sinking pellets but the lfs gave me NLS Discus Formula stating it was the same item just labeled different. Now to be fair they havent steered me wrong previously but there is a niggling doubt in my mind about the food. Reading the analysis on the labels the differences in product are :- 8% moisture in the discus, 10% in the other, vitamin d 450iu/kg in discus and 2500 iu/kg in the other. To me these differences dont seem extreme but I'm still a novice so could be wrong. One of my cobwe females is having trouble swimming and her belly looks a little swollen...........this fish has been hanging upside down the past few weeks at times picking algae off the rocks so not sure if its bloat maybe or something thats been ongoing and I havent noticed. None of the other fish are showing any signs of problems and it could be my imagination on the swollen belly as its not extreme and any other time I would put it down to being a guts and eating too much. Any opinions appreciated, water conditions are stable (ph 8.3, gh 180, kh 100, no nitrates or ammonia, temp 25C) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fry_2_buy Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Hey mate, I wouldn't be too concerned with giving them the discus NLS. Spectrum foods in general are able to be given to many, many fish with no problems occuring. Discus are cichlids too after all, just come from the Amazon rather than the lakes of africa as most mbuna and other cichlids. As for your cobue afra, I found they have a tendancy to become eggbound, this basically stops your fish breeding, signs include the swollen belly. They can live with the condition and eat as normal but just won't spawn. As for being something like bloat I can't be sure but if it remains the same and still has the swollen belly than chances are it is eggbound. Cheers, Fry_2_Buy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 Tx for the reply Fry, I'll keep an eye on her and feel relieved about the food now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcloughlin2 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I'm pretty sure I've read NLS foods can all be fed to any fish. (cichlid food can be fed to marines, marines can be fed to cichlids etc) If your cobue is egg bound it is often fatal, however it sounds like a case of bloat or even an injury from a fight. What I would do is put some epsom salt in the tank at a dose of 1 tsp per 40L. This helps clean the fish out and works wonders with fixing mild problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Tx Mc, my male saulosi and cobwe have had the tank in a state of agitation for the past 2 weeks trying to dominate each other for a spawning site they both want. Its possible the female got hurt during a fight or in the way of a chase. Will keep an eye on her and see how things go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CThompson Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 It is also my understanding that the discus NLS can be feed to Africans. However, there are differences, that may not come across on the label, such as the percentages. Thought the ingredients are listed with the percentages in ascending order, that is, the first ingredient has the highest percentage, that doesn’t state that the exact percentage, and the percentages have been tweaked to be more appropriate for the targeted fish. So the shop is really not correct, but may not know the above. That means that though you won’t hurt your Africans using the NLS targeted to discus, you are better off using African food for Africans and discus food for discus etc. The cobwe issue will be unrelated to feeding if NLS is used exclusively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Tx CT, I will have to use up this batch of food, the cost was too much to throw it away if its ok to use. I might try to get a smaller container of the food I used originally and use a bit of both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Not to worry, it's perfectly fine to feed the Discus formula to your African cichlids. No need to throw it out, or buy a new container & mix it. Neither you nor your fish will ever notice the difference. Whilst the ingredient proportions can vary in some of the formulas, all of the basic ingredients used in NLS are fairly identical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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