What Do You Feed Your Cockatoo Cichlid (Apistogramma Cacatuoides)

[Ashley1991]

ill get pictures when they have settled in more they are very shy at the min well the female is the male is always up at the front of the glass flaring up

but im having a bit of trouble with feeding i have to overfeed my tank just to get the male to notice there is food there and then he is not very fast to react but he does get a few pieces of food but the female does not even come out when its feeding time i cant even find her most the time will she go along the gravel looking for food or should i be worried??

ash

edit: i feed all my fish tetra flakes which i crush up for the tetras and the guppys are fine with this and i also feed tetraprima mini granules which i mix in with the flakes should i put some bigger sized flakes in to see if he notices them easier?

 

[karin]

Just to reassure my cockatoos are slow about eating too. I put in flakes to distract my tetras and then drop in the mini granules. I don't seem to get loads but my male is plump and the female thriving. I think some stuff gets blown into the caves and hiding places around plants so I think they get enough. But like you I worry. Mine have thrived for over two months.

 

[Ashley1991]

ok thanks thats reassured me a bit ill dump some flakes in at the opposite end of the tank to the cichlids then drop some sinking granules in the other end see how that goes cheers

ash

 

[chrisbassist]

It can also take some time for them to settle in properly.

Try feeding bloodworm. Mine seem to go mental for it.

 

[Ashley1991]

ill go pick some blood worm up at some point to cheers chris

ash

 

[Ashley1991]

the female came out to eat today but spat all her food back out and has been sat on the substrate all day not looking to good the male was eating fine though

 

[chrisbassist]

Mine sometimes spit bits out, it's as if they don't like certain colour flakes.

 

[kaivalagi]

All my cichlids do that...even my HRP fry, the HRP mum has the excuse of prepping food for here babies though

I totally agree with Chris on the bloodworm, if all else fails blood worm is irresistible to any cichlid If you can pick up some live ones they'll go berserk I am sure!

 

[Ashley1991]

i fed her a flake with some tweezers but she spat it back out

if i get time ill pop up to the fish shop tommrow and see if they have any bloodworm in
cheers
ash