List Of Alternative Foods For Cichlids

[ChilliPepper]

Besides pellets, and foods like bloodworm, daphnia, shrimp etc, what other foods can we give our cichlids to give variety in their diet?

• 
  Fruit and Veg
• Cucumber
• Courgette/Zucchini
• Deshelled/Mashed peas
• Banana
• Lettuce
• Savoy cabbage
• Spinach
• Papaya
• Broccoli *
• Butternut squash
• Green part of watermelon
• Lightly boiled potato
  
  Seafood and fish
• Tuna *
• Mackerel *
• Squid **
• Cockles
• Chopped prawn
  
  
  Insects and bugs
• Earthworms
• Moths *
• Spiders
• Gnats
• Flies
• Grasshoppers
• Crickets
• Ants
• Mealworms
• Cockroaches
  
  
  Meat
• Wafer thin ham
• Chicken

Add your suggestions below and I'll edit the list

* Can be messy so best to feed before a water change
** Best fed as an ingredient in a home made food

 

[Verminator89]

Ants, in recent weeks when all those pesky flying ants were out and about i caught a few and dropped them in. My fish went absolutely nuts for them

 

[hamfist]

Butternut squash & cockles are two I have used with success.

 

[ChilliPepper]

Added!

 

[kaivalagi]

Good stuff Chillipepper, I'll come back with more findings when after I've been shopping...

Carrot went down okay but only with the BN plec, not sure whether it's worth adding though...have others had any joy with boiled/softened carrot? I had about the same thing with boiled potato

 

[ChilliPepper]

Boiled potato sounds messy

 

[kaivalagi]

Boiled potato sounds messy

Yeah, don't boil it too long!

You can add Broccoli to the list, Star4 uses it with good results I think...

 

[Verminator89]

This kinda thing aught to be pinned once complete :]

 

[kaivalagi]

It will be useful once it's been added to enough...

I think this should be basic food stuffs...any mixing/serious prep'ing of food needs to go somewhere else I think i.e. "List of Recipes for Cichlids"

 

[Monty-2010]

chopped prawns

 

[star4]

Broccoli is a tad messy but well loved, I found green savoy cabbage goes gown well too, not tried potato with the other tanks but I know Jehtro love is

 

[star4]

One that went down very well the other day, we went on a picnic and had watermellon, after eating the red part we left the pale green bit, I just cut away the hard outside skin and the Texas & Rotkeils loved it.

*No the fish didnt come with us on the picnic

 

[markandhisfish]

squid , my discus love it .

in the past i have also given cichlids ( not my discus)

chicken
tuna
earthworms
mealworms
mackerel

 

[star4]

Havnt tried squid!! thats something for the list. I forgot another treat for mine is wafer thin ham, that goes down really well

 

[markandhisfish]

i should point out that i dont give them squid on its own , its 1 of the ingredients in the food i make up , but its deffinately the squid that they go mad for . i made another batch using the exact same ingredients in the exact same quanteties , but i replaced the squid with mussels , and they are pretty indifferent towards it.

also tuna and mackerel are best fed just before your waterchange is due as they will both leave an oily film on the water surface