Brine shrimp Good or bad?
Paul
bumblebee, 2 angels, 2 moonlight gaurami's, and 2 plecos in the same 72
gallon bow front. It's double filtered (fluval 404 can.) (whisper 170
biowheel) and maintained faithfully. I know I'm not supposed to mix african
and S.A. cichlids but you know what, they all love each other. My
question...I've always fed them pellets, flakes, and an occasionally
vegetable. Recently I opted for a small package of frozen brine shrimp.These
lil buggers were practically doing flips for me at feeding time. ok my
question for sure.....Is it safe for the Malawi cichlids? I've read on some
web sites not to feed brine shrimp to this type of cichlids.Thanks in
advance and sorry for being so long winded this is my first posting on a
newsgroup.
Paul
I Can Help
week. Although their primary diet in the wild is algae, there are lots of
little critters that live in the algae covered rocks in the Lake. While the
fish are tugging and pulling for the algae, it's only natural that they
would also get some of the critters. I never had any problem with mine
while giving them the treats.
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"Paul" <Pl...@home.com> wrote in message
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MalawiMan
requirements. If you are talking about mbuna then I would only feed this
occasionally since algae is their primary food source. However, many
other species do not eat algae at all. Some eat plankton, insects,
crustaceans, and some eat exclusively other fish. You need to find out
what species you have and then you can better be helped. There are some
species, especially from Lake Tanganyika, whose digestive systems can
not handle brine shrimp and this could kill them in large enough
feedings. Other species will gain too much fatty deposits and lead less
healthy and shortened lives. When one is asking a specific question you
can not rely on answers that are so general as to using the term
Malawian cichlid. The huge diversity of the lake has been one of the
reasons why these fish are so popular.
Kent Cannon
that they are totally thawed out (no chunks) in a glass of tank water prior
to adding to the tank. Prior to learning this little trick, I lost some to
Bloat.
--
Kent Cannon
He who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
http://www.angelfire.com/or2/cichlid102/
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"Paul" <Pl...@home.com> wrote in message
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Paul
the a malawi cichlids.If needed I can bust out my books and give you the
long names but I didn't deem that necsessary. thanks for the interest.
Paul
"MalawiMan" <MalawiC...@webtv.net> wrote in message
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MalawiMan
many in this news group lump Malawians into one specific group with one
diet. The soccolofi, caerules, and kenyi are your general mbuna and
mainly herbivores that eat algae. The bumblebee is said to eat parasites
off of catfish. The frontosa, who is from Lake Tanganyika, and the
e-blues are piscovores and can easily handle more of the brine shrimp.
The angels and gouramis I know little about since its been years since
I've had "normal community" fish. The plecos are normal scavengers, but
from what I've learned from some people who are more experienced with
them there are great diffences in some of those to. In fact, some plecos
are supposed to not be good at eating algae at all such as the Zebra
Pleco. As far as your Rift Lake cichlids go there is a good degree of
difference in their normal diets. Your identification was perfectly fine
in the first post it was a later post that had used the general term
Malawians. Once you find out about the dietary needs of the angels and
gouramis I would say it would be fine to occasionally feed the brine.
When half the tank needs high "veggie" and the other needs high protein
its better to keep it mixed than to overdo one type of food.
Ben Senior
>The soccolofi, caerules, and kenyi are your general mbuna and
> mainly herbivores that eat algae.
Are algae flakes suitable then?? I was lead to believe they are Very high
in protein (hence "rich")
Both of my books on Malawi cichlids suggest feeding Mbuna with blanched
lettuce, spinach, cucumber, cougette (zuccini), peas etc. as well as white
fish, prawns, and brineshrimp.
And defineitley not bloodworms (certainly not regularly anyway), because
they are thought to induce bloat.
MalawiMan
well as other hobbyist. In the wild, mbuna for the most part spend their
time removing algae from rocks with their outer jaws in different
fashions depending on the species. I have had the privilege to see this
happen in some of my show tanks. I get lucky enough to be able to grow
some algae on the rocks and the fish scrape it off exactly as they do in
the movies that I've seen by Ad Konings. I feed mine mainly a 50/50
veggie/spirulina flake mix. I have too many tanks to deal with fresh
veggies, but many claim to have success with one exception that I know.
One of my fellow hobbyists bought some lettuce from the grocery store,
rinsed it(obviously not well enough), and within 1 hour his whole
Tropheus group was dead...poisoned. Some pesticides "allegedly" do us no
harm but this makes you wonder. The bloodworms was one that I haven't
heard before. Last time I used them was for a Betta years ago though.
Now TUBIFEX worms is widely said to contribute to bloat. I raise
earthworms and they are part of my predatory species, Nimbochromis/
Tyrannochromis/ Rhampsochromis, diets but I DO NOT do feeder fish bought
from stores because of diseases.
Mephistopheles
I agree wholeheartedly with your general point. However, I have read
things in books that contradict some of the specifics. With regard to
L. caeruleus, I have read that they feed largely on small animals living
among the algae bio cover -- not the algae itself. With regard to
electric blues (I assume we are talking about H. "ahli"), I have read
that they are primarily zooplankton feeders -- not piscavores. Do you
have contrary authority?
Paul
reading all the posts, will be to feed them as usual, flakes, pellets,
veggies, and an occasional treat of brine shrimp maybe once or twice a week.
My intentions were to give them brine shrimp on a daily bases, I know
now that wouldn't be so good. After all I couldn't live on bacon alone.
Thanks again.news:23793-3A...@storefull-288.iap.bryant.webtv.net...
MalawiMan
True I was trying to make a general point and show that to many times
advice is given here that is erroneous because it is too generalized.
I stand corrected on L. caeruleus. According to Digby Lewis (1982) there
are two sub-populations, the typical "feeding on insects and other soft
prey" and the other having "enlarged pharyngeal teeth" that feeds on
snails and other molluscs. This info taken from Ad Konings MALAWI
CICHLIDS in their natural habitat...2nd Edition.
Now as far as the "electric blue ahlis" go there comes the great
confusion. Sciaenocchromis fryeri has been sold for years as "electric
blues" and many times with ahli added to the end. This is probably the
fish that most have and not the true S. ahli. S. fryeri eats "very small
fishs such as the fry of mbuna and utaka." Even if one has the much more
rare S. ahli it is also a predator. This info was taken from the same
book and also seen in one of Ad's video documentaries.
We can only learn from each other.