Food, Equipment And Stores/sites

[SDWalters]

Hi all, I thought it might be a good idea and very helpful for me and to everyone really if people would list a few things:

1) what they feed their cichlids (I'm talking pellets etc not fruit and veg as we already have that big list)
2) what filters we all use and what we fill the filters with I.e what media
3) where we get supplies from (good websites, stores etc)

I just wanted to gather some info from you guys and girls so I can find the best for my fish!

 

[markandhisfish]

good idea.

my tank is 4x2x2
my tank is filtered with an eheim 2217+ and an eheim 2028 , the 2028 has mostly bio-balls , with 1 basket containing those cermic tube things ( forget the proper name) with a coarse pad in the bottom and a fine 1 in the top. the 2217 is all sponge pads of varying coarseness.
2 300w heaters

when i had sevs,acaras etc i used to feed hikari gold pellets , various frozen foods incluiding , mysis.krill,bloodworm,black mosquito larvae , cucumber ( vinny loves it!) , prawns,live river shrimp and earthworms , ocaisionally a bit of tuna as a treat.

now i have discus i make my own seafood based mix in a blender comprising of
squid ( 1 mug)
prawns(1 mug)
blanched spinnach( big ole double handfull)
cooked shelled peas ( 1/4 mug)
hikari pellets(1/2 mug)
garlic ( 4 cloves)
crushed spirulina tablets(5)
crushed multivitamins (4)
1 very ripe banana to help bind it

they also get , brineshrimp , tetraprima , and krill

good websites i have used are warehouse aquatics
aqua essentials
charterhouse aquatics
plymouth diuscus supplies

 

[kaivalagi]

A couple pages from the past on food:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/334788-anyones-fish-adore-banana-too-what-else/
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/336002-list-of-alternative-foods-for-cichlids/

I've used Warehouse and Charterhouse aquatics online

 

[markandhisfish]

when i ordered my sand from aqua essentials i got a free copy of tropical fish magazine in the box , which i thought was pretty good

oh i forgot to add . thegreenmachine , very good plants. more expensive than most but the plants are top notch . example i ordered some giant vallis and it was easily 3 foot tall and loads of it . .

 

[hamfist]

For dried food, I think the key thing is variety. I have about 8 different ones which I rotate. For many cichlids it's important to try and keep up the veggie content of their diet (and many of them are not keen on eating raw veggies).
For that I use Nutrafin max cichlid spirulina sticks, Ocean Nutrition Cihlid Vegi pellets and the Tetra Pro vegetable crisps (I have not met a fish who can resist these yet !!).

Apart from sponges in my filters I only use Eheim Ehfisubstrat pro. It's very easy to work with, doesn't constantly have bits falling off it, and has a huge internal surface area. I also managed to get a massive bag of the stuff at a very good price ! Filters I'm running are FX5, Eheim 2217 & 2215 and Allpondsolutions EF1400.

As for online supplies, I buy from whoever has it the cheapest at the time. That seems to be Warehouse Aquatics or Seapets a lot of the time. Often you can find things even cheaper on ebay.

 

[SDWalters]

Good stuff so far!

At the moment I feed mine Hikari Gold cichlid pellets. Tetra veg crisp's, a tetra granular food & pleco wafers (chocolate cichlid loves them!!)


I filter my 100g tank with a Fluval 405, an Allpondsolutions EF2000 & a Fluval u4 internal - Am looking to introduce some ADA products into the filters as I find the ADA brand to be excellent quality (anyone had any experience of any of the following: ADA Bamboo Charcoal, ADA Bio Rio, ADA Palm Net Or Easy Life Symbiont)


I also find thegreenmachine to be a good site as well as Allpondsolutions.

 

[jmkgreen]

now i have discus i make my own seafood based mix in a blender comprising of
squid ( 1 mug)
prawns(1 mug)
blanched spinnach( big ole double handfull)
cooked shelled peas ( 1/4 mug)
hikari pellets(1/2 mug)
garlic ( 4 cloves)
crushed spirulina tablets(5)
crushed multivitamins (4)
1 very ripe banana to help bind it

they also get , brineshrimp , tetraprima , and krill

You are making my fish look extremely hungry.

 

[markandhisfish]

lol mine are permanently hungry