# How often to feed cichlids?



## [email protected]

I have a tank full of yellow labs, ps. acei, and sunburst peacocks. I feed them Tetra Algae Veggie infused crisps, and occasionally Tetra Cichlid flakes. How often should I be feeding them?


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## mbuna77

I have Labs and Ps. Acei and I feed once a day. Have been doing this for as long as I've had cichlids and it has worked well. Fry or juvenile fish I would probably feed more often but with adult fish I would start with once a day and work from there.


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## GaFishMan1181

I feed my fish NLS 2x a day about what they can eat in 20 seconds. You are going to find this varies from person to person and your going to have to figure out what works best for you.

I have used the food you are talking about as a treat in the past but not as a staple food. If it were me I would switch to a spirulina flake or NLS. If you do switch slowly introduce the new food over a couple of weeks.


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## brinkles

The more you feed them, the faster they grow, but the more maintenance you have to do. They'll stay healthy on surprisingly little.


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## 13razorbackfan

I feed my fish 3 or 4 times daily but SMALL feedings of NLS. I also feed them 2 sometimes 3 times a week small earthworms freshly dug up from the backyard. I also keep my temp at 78 which keeps that metabolism humming.


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## DJRansome

Fast growth is not necessarily healthy, either. :thumb:


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## [email protected]

Help me out here... What is NLS?

[email protected]


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## 702Cichlid

NLS = New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula Sinking Pellets.

I myself have gone to a twice a day feeding of a combination of two different veggie flakes (Omega One Super Veggie Kelp Flakes and Nutrafin Max Spirulina) and two different sinking pellets (New Life Spectrum and Dainichi Veggie Deluxe) in 1 part flake: 2 part pellet ratio. My mbuna go ape poo over all of it. Feeding twice a day will help a bit with aggression, but i'm finding it also seems to decrease some of their grazing and social interaction as well. A double-edge sword--as they start to mature i'll most likely move back down to one slightly larger feeding a day. I'm kind of overkill with that much diversity i'm finding it's really unnecessary and as i run out I'll probably end up with just one flake and NLS as they assault it all with vigor and it's hard to argue with the ingredients in the NLS.

It's a good idea to give your fish a fasting day where you don't feed them at all. This will give your fish some time to work some things out of their long digestive tracts. The day before a fast i will work in some shelled blanched peas cut into pieces to give the little guys a little fiber. Not necessary probably but they often will select peas over pellets, so my guys like it!

How much to feed was a tough thing for me to figure out even though i asked the forum there's just too many variables for anyone to give you a concrete answer. How many fish? What size? What species? What temperature? How much algae is available for grazing? Are there plants available? What feed? You see, it's just too much for anyone to tell you exactly. I ended up getting a digital scale that measured to .01 grams and found out how much mass of food the fish would clean up in about 20 seconds so that i could reproduce with some accuracy a daily feeding regimen. Every month i reassess as the fish grow. Super anal, i know but i wanted to find concrete answers for my tank.


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