# home made vegie mix for mbuna



## Aramz (Jun 24, 2008)

I was making a vigie mix for my mbuna. I boiled some pumpkin, zuchini, peas and carrot and put them in a blender. I then put the mix in ice-cube containers and froze them. I threw a couple in my tank and the fish seemed ok with them. Not all ate it, some only liked bits of the food, maybe they spat out the pumpkin etc im not quite sure. it left alot of mess in my tank thats for sure. I was wondering if anyone had any recipes they could share regarding some vegetable food for your cichlids. Something to mix it up a bit, i heard they like a bit of variety with the odd treat.

I also feed brine shrimp as i heard its good (i feed once a week) althought recently i have heard it can cause bloat and isn't the best to feed. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers


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## GaFishMan1181 (Dec 17, 2008)

i would just put the veggie's in there without mixing them up to see what they like. 
I have heard alot of people rubber banding a zuchini slice to a rock and letting the fish go for it.


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## Terrence23 (Oct 2, 2008)

Making a vegetarian smoothie for cichlids seems like a lot of hassle to me lol. All you really need is a good quality fish food like NLS but I sometimes give my mbuna some blanched zucchini or shelled peas and they love them. Tie them to a rock or use one of those of those plastic clips with a suction cup from any LFS like I do to keep the veggies in place. Be sure to remove any uneaten veggies by the next day or they will start to rot and foul the water.

I would stay away from live fatty foods like brine shrimp or bloodworms. This site is full of warnings about that kind of food contributing to bloat disease.


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## letstalkfish (Dec 25, 2008)

Why blanch them?


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## letstalkfish (Dec 25, 2008)

I give them cucumber and they seem to love it like no other my largest female hongi fights over it.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I would not blenderize the veges so you can remove before 10 hours. Some veges have to be blanched because they are too hard for the fish to chew otherwise. Carrots, blanch. Cucumbers don't need blanching.

I feed NLS Cichlid formula almost exclusively. Veges are fun to watch the fish pick at them on occasion.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

mine like zucchini, lettuce, cucumber, peas....I should try pumpkin next Halloween.


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## kb3781 (Jul 22, 2008)

In the Library under the Feeding section there are some homemade recipes.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/food_recipes.php

I did the garlic one at the bottom of the article mainly because my kids wanted to try it out. They go crazy over it. Then again, is there any food that they don't go crazy for??


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## Alisonj (Aug 24, 2008)

I give mine Romaine lettuce and peas once a week and they go nuts. But I just shell the peas and soak them in garlic and feed them


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## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

If you are using a blender then you probably don't need to blanch the veggies. Cooking takes away some of the foods nutritional value by altering enzymes and vitamins. Adding a small amount of garlic will increase your fishes attraction to this food. Also I would think that herbivorous cichlids have a digestive system designed to process hard to digest plant matter. I've often heard of people blanching romaine lettuce to break it down and make it easier to digest. If food that is too easily digested can contribute to digestive problems then wouldn't it make sense to give them foods that take longer for the fish to process? I know that in the lake a great deal of the food these fishes consume goes through them undigested.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I find homemade foods like this very messy, and they tend to foul the water somewhat, so I don't use them. I tried it years ago, but just didn't like it.

For a long time, I occasionally gave my mbuna blanched spinach or peas, but I stopped doing that.

A quality staple fish food is all you need.


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## doza42 (Feb 21, 2008)

I feed my fish seaweed, yep the stuff used in sushi rolls. Its cheap, green, and my fish love it. It can get your tank a little messy if you do not have enough filtration AND water flow, but if your keeping mbuna you should have twice the filtration required for whatever size tank you have anyways. If you feed leafy greens it doesnt hurt to rinse your filters out daily to keep your tank from fowling up. If your a freak about the bacteria in your filter or chlorine getting into your tank use treated water to rinse your filter cartridge.

I also feed with spirulina flakes, supersoft spirulina pellets and brine shrimp(sporadically).


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## Timkat4867 (Jan 11, 2008)

I use peas, spinach, zuchini, and a few shrimp blended together. I break off a tiny amount and feed my cichlids once a week. the less you feed, the less mess.


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