# What food product works best for your Trophs?



## creptilia

I have been keeping Tangs off and on over the last 20 years and finally made the plunge into a colony of Ikolas. I normally feed my community Tang tanks, and the few T. duboisi I have had in the past, with Aquatrol Spirulina and/or NLS pellets. I am currently feeding Xtreme flake and pellets to the Ikolas (based on breeder's suggestion) and they seem to prefer the pellets over the flake.

Anyway, I know some individuals feed flake and pellet and some just feed pellets. I also know it is not a good idea to give Trophs a high protein diet and provide some sort of veggie (e.g. Spirulina). I am aware of the better quality foods out there, such as Omega, Aquatrol, Xtreme, NLS, Danichi (sp?), Ocean Nutrition...but, what seems to work the best for you? And do you feed two types a food per day?

Any experiences will help. I just want the best for my new fish.


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## timbruun

You could just feed NLS and the on occasion throw in some veggie like a piece of cucumber or zuchinni.


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## bossfish

I feed mine cichlid excel and veggie flakes. I think any food that doesn't contain a lot of animal protien is fine to feed to tropheus.


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## punman

I've had tropheus for two years. They were 1.5 inches when I got them and they get nothing but New Life Spectrum - a couple of pinches twice a day. They started breeding four months later and I have not lost one adult fish in all that time.


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## geoff_tropheus

In all my years of keeping Tropheus really the best food is what they are eating now and living and thriving and are healthy.

I feed my own fish Aquarian Tropical Flakes, and New life Spectrum Cichild 1mm and Large Fish Formual 3mm pellet food.

Whenever you switch around a Trophs or Petro food, do so slowly over a couple weeks. Once the fish are rock solid they can eat just about anything as long as you have acclimated them to eating that.

Good foods in my opinion are:

Pellet : Hikari Cichlid Excel, Dainichi Veggie FX, Color Deluxe, and NLS any pellet.

Flake : Aquarian Tropcial Flake, HBH Veggie Graze, and Ken's Tropheus Lover Flake. Just about any good veggie flake will do.

Fresh: Veggies such as spinach, peas, romaine lettuce all on a veggie clip.

Frozen : Mysis, whole shrimps blended, and krill


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## canart

geoff_tropheus said:


> Once the fish are rock solid they can eat just about anything as long as you have acclimated them to eating that.


Good point Geoff! Although Tropheus breeders recommend low protein and high vegetable diet (spirulina based), Trophs are quite sturdy fish when kept in good conditions.

I feed mine Trophs with protein reacher food (NLS granules, frozen artemia or cyclops, OSI prostar flakes) in the morning and spirulina based food like OSI or Sera flakes in the evening).


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## 24Tropheus

I use pellets and veggie flake and normal flake (various makes) used to use NLS for a while but I got some Ocean Nutrition for free, so now I use that. Not sure what is best not treid em all by a long chalk.

I like to see em graze algae too. I thought spirulina is not like lake algae because it is highly digestable, it is used mainly for colour enhancement not to replace hard to digest algae in fish foods I think.
Funny thing spirulina is both an algae and very high protien and easy to digest I think so not realy a substitute for algae but then with good water and controled agression levels by crowding, diet (with high roughage) seems less important at preventing bloat.


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## noddy

I now feed NLS almost exclusively, I throw in some hikari cichlid exel mini Pellets occasionaly. I have given up on flake foods for the most part because I find that I just end up with containers of dust that is no use to me (maybe because I don't keep it in the fridge).


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## creptilia

Thank you all for your advice. It seems as if many of you are having success on many different foods.


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## zebra7

If it's OK with you creptilia, I'd like to add something to your thread. To the experienced Tropheus keeper's who answered this thread, how are your Tropheus spawning on your current diet's ? How Often , are you happy with your egg count's per female ? I'm currently feeding NLS cichlid formula, mixed 50/50 with Xtreme cichlid diet. I also supplement with Xtreme's Spirulina / Krill flake. On this diet Tropheus are spawning regularly ( Illangi, Murago green ) , with egg count's on average @ 5-10 per fish. Is 5-10 a good average for adult Tropheus ? Maybe a bit more protein need's to be added to their diet ( krill ) ? Before I started feeding my current line-up I tried both Dainichi, and NLS pellet's as their main diet. Fish were healthy, and exhibited good color, but their spawning what not nearly has often as my current diet. Don't want to hijack your thread creptilia, just was interested to hear a bit more from the experienced Tropheus keeper's here. thank you, Anthony


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## 24Tropheus

I think spawing has very little to do with diet more to do with females not getting bullied much. They can come into condition quickly I think whatever you feed as long as they are not bullied too much. (high nutrient = higher danger of bloat etc but will increase breeding and is risky)
Very interested in what others think too though.

All the best James


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## canart

Mine breed regularly. But I have observed that in the poor conditions when I was moving into my new flat and the maintenance and particularly feeding wasn't best, they stopped to breed. The breeding started right after the conditions and feeding improved. I think 5-10 is about an average...some females have 1-3 some 12+ fry. Often amount of eggs is higher than released fry.

I think the diet significantly affects the number of fry and also the breeding rate...esp. when stripped. Females need very nutritive diet it that conditions to be in a good shape. But like James advised, there is a risk of illness like bloat. So be careful what you feed your Trophs.


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## kramer30

Hi,

I feed with Hikari cichlid exel mini Pellets, NLS. Sera spirulina tabs, Sera granogreen,
artemia once a week.

I find that the fish like Hikari the most.

Benny


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## Floridagirl

NLS 1mm


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## punman

Five to ten fry seem average for me. The biggest factor for me was tank size. When they were in the 180 gallon I had bigger spawns than the 90 gallon yielded. I think the reason was less interuptions.


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## Lawsman

Ken's Tropheus flake in the morning and NLS Cichlid 1mm in evening! All is good!


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## rtaylor

Thanks for the informative sharing and post.


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## SAMhap

i feed mine a big mixture of omega one cichlid, omega one veggie, omegaone color, omega one kelp and omega one first flake.
i just buy 5 lb of bucket of each type and mix it all up. my trophs seems to love it.


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