Lambodar Sahu

For most beginners the simplicity of raising fish is something that is considered wrong in most cases. You will see that it is not that easy to raise African cichlids and they simply can not remain healthy with regular fish food available in pet stores. Not every single African cichlid type will need the exact same diet. This is because we have 4 categories of African cichlid fish when talking about what they eat. The four types of African cichlid fish are omnivorous, herbivorous, micro predators and carnivorous.

You should know that a species that eats meat can also eat plants and the other way around. You should never overdue this. Whenever raising omnivore African cichlids you can, for instance, use a diet that is more suitable for a carnivorous group and the fish is to survive for some time although it will eventually become sick. Even before the purchase of the fish there is a need to properly understand everything linked with their diets.

Cichlid flake food stands out as really good in most situations but we do recommend that you take a close look at ingredients used. Foods that contain a lot of fish meal and are fat based have to be well analyzed. Warm blood animal food should be always avoided under all circumstances. Frozen or live fish can be used as food for cichlids even if the African cichlid will not show this as a main diet. In the event that you are raising cichlids that are carnivorous you should use flake food that includes vegetation together with a supplementation of krill and brine shrimp.

If your African cichlid fish shows reddish, orange or yellow coloration then you do need food that has lots of pigment. One easy way to look for pigmentation is analyzing what happens after fish eat. In the event that there is not, your fish will lose coloring.

Besides the facts that were mentioned above another aspect is also important. A lot of new fish owners will overfeed them. Cichlids do not actually need so much food as some people think. Fish can die when you overfeed them. Just feed the fish three times daily with a quantity of food that it can eat in around thirty seconds. This is enough.