Looking for food to maximise growth rate for CA cichlids?

[zerospel]

Hi guys,

Im keeping central american cichlids at the moment and some are still very small. Since I cant wait to see them reach 30cm mark Id like to feed them some good stuff to maximise their growth speed

At the moment Im feeding them NLS,hikari gold,occassional bloodworms and green vegies and also weekly water changes and raised the temp to 28deg.

The tank is a 4x2x2 with a 15cm fenestratus,a 12cm bocourti, a 7cm bocourti,6cm hartwegi,6cm splendida,6cm talking cat and a 12cm senegal bichir

Im actually considering the orca high protein pellets. What do you guys think about this product?

Also be getting a 7x2 tank in few mths hopefully so i can get more fish

Any recommendations or suggestions appreciated

Thanks

[Rod54]

Simple....Increase frequency of water changes........the more the better......

Experiment with discus

The Experiment

To the best of my knowledge I will try to recall exactly what Mr. Wattley said, as well as reference my notes and if I can find the video footage I recorded will update this article accordingly.

Mr. Wattley took small Discus from the same birth batch and split them into two groups and placed each group into small tanks. If I recall correctly the first tank was just large enough to place a pitcher in the tank to remove water.

The smallest tank had no filtration at all, and 90% of the water was changed seven to eight times a day.The second tank was a bit larger and contained a sponge filter. The water was changed once a day and 90% of the water was removed each time.

After about a month the results spoke for themselves. The siblings in the smaller tank that received seven to eight water changes a day with no filtration were double the size! Even though they were born from the same batch of fry, same parents and ate the same diet, the extreme water changes resulted in double the growth.

So....Once a week works....once a day is a lot better.....8 times a day even more so!

[mathobes]

Frequent water changes, brine shimp every so often and good quality staple food. I use nls grow.

[CThompson]

Frequent water changes, brine shimp every so often and good quality staple food. I use nls grow.

2nd that, and further stick with NLS, and as a dry food the fish will be better off if it’s fed exclusively, but don't feed Grow once they are not young. Make your own home made frozen mix as a cheaper alternative/addition to brine shrimp, do more water changes if you're keen enough. In the end they are living creatures so let them grow as nature intended and have patience.

[fosco]

2nd that, and further stick with NLS, and as a dry food the fish will be better off if it’s fed exclusively, but don't feed Grow once they are not young. Make your own home made frozen mix as a cheaper alternative/addition to brine shrimp, do more water changes if you're keen enough. In the end they are living creatures so let them grow as nature intended and have patience.

spot on and don't over feed (it only lowers your water quality there for slowing the growth of your fish) and large weekly water changes will do it

[Link2Hell]

look after the water quality and the fish will do the rest

frozen brine shimp are nutrient reduced due to the exo skeleton bursting during freezing

so fresh is best or use green prawns diced

you use to be able to buy unfrozen krill which was very good

you could try and culture local freshwater glass shrimp if you want live snack sized, just

remember they don't like it too hot

Chris

[zerospel]

thanks for the useful feedbacks

the discus experiment article is very interesting though i think i will have to stick to my weekly WC hehe

[Batty]

I have a small (50cm) tank I grow cherry shrimp in, when numbers start to get a bit high, the cichlids get some