One essential condition for keeping your cichlids healthy for many years is good nutrition. Appropriate food is not only a question of quantity but also of quality for the offered food. In general the aquarist looks after whether he provides enough food but not always of the variation. In general the aquarist feels inclined to give too much in stead of too little food. Both extremes are harmful, because they can lead to diseases, or at least a decreased activity and resistance of the fishes.
A lot of times it appears to be that fishes get too little food, consequently, don�t develop any breeding activities. It poses in a tank where several live and eating habits are put together. Very greedy and active fishes have already eaten all the food while the shy or frightened species not yet have started eating.
Mistakes are quit often made more in composition of food than in the amount of food. That�s due to the fact that some popular species are downright feeding specialists. In the aquaristique, fishes are often divided into peacefully and predatory fishes. This classification appeals but is nevertheless a result of wrong conclusions, which can be made by beginning aquarists. In common the peaceful fishes feed themselves in their natural habitat exclusively and mainly with animal food. The only criterion, on which the classification is based on of peaceful and predatory fishes, is the size of the prey, because there is hardly a cichlid species to be found which do not eat other species if the size does not correspond with the food he normally prefers. Besides absolute herbivores, there are a numerous amount of fishes, which need some herbivorous food as a side dish. For large cichlids it�s sufficient to add some big lettuce leaves in the water besides their normal food. For juveniles and smaller species it�s best to use frozen- or fresh spinach. For fresh fish meat we have nothing to say. We can buy it either fresh or frozen. Besides the meat of freshwater fish we can also feed saltwater fish. |
