Best food for cichlids

Hello again,
I'll try to contain my answer to just the food question.

I tried the New Life Spectrum Pellets last year - Gavin was working for Tropical World then and had little bags as samples he was passing out.
I got some of these and found them to be great - I was going to buy more...until I saw the prices!
I personally use some Tetra Prima, Tetra DoroMin (broken for smaller Cichlids) and also the Pellets made by Azoo I bought from Petshoponline.
Some years back I would use the pellets made by Hikari - I found these to be very good too.

Frozen Prawns are a favoured food for Cichlids, they can be chopped into smaller 'mouth sized' pieces. I've never found Frozen Prawns in Ireland with Eggs attached, these eggs provide a really nutritious addition to Cichlids' feed.

I must add that these are all recommendations for Central and South American Cichlids, I couldn't possibly comment upon their suitability for Rift Valley African Cichlids - but then you question was relating to CAs and SAs specifically.

Your Blue Acaras - fear not, you'll get many more spawnings from them - they are a quite prolific species...and that's a bit of an understatement!!!

John

Hello again,
For what it's worth I think you are already feeding a balanced diet of 'prepared' foods to your fish but I still think they could well benefit from a little actual 'meaty-type' food, like the Prawns.
Yes, you can - at least I always do - use frozen shelled Prawns for human consumption...the reason why it's available irradiated (or Gamma treated) in Aquatic Shops is for Marine use, there is a sort of yardstick which states that for feeding Marines any Marine water-based foodstruff (like all shellfish, for example) is that if they should have any Marine-based 'nasties' they shouldn't be able to affect Freshwater Fish and vice-versa. So go ahead and use the Frozen Prawns from the Supermarket, I have for years and never had a problem. When I lived in England it was possible to buy whole Prawns frozen, it made using the eggs far less messy as they were frozen in a 'lump' and the outer shell could be easily removed without the eggs ending up everywhere!

You can, for smaller fish, rub the Frozen Prawn meat on a grater and get a very fine meaty pulp, this would obviously depend upon the size of the grater you were using - but there's room for experimentation here.

And yes, I've kept Blue Acaras many times - actually have a pair right now tending what seems to be half-a-million fry!!! (bit of an exaggeration - again!!!).
The dark 'stripes' seem to appear as a spawning colouration, or for just a bit of posturing, and fades when the fish aren't 'stimulated' - I shouldn't worry too much as it will return when they get the 'urge' back upon them.

John