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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Feeding cichlids

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13 Jul 2012 10:35 #1 by Axolotl (mark gethings)
Hi guys,

I realise different cichlids have different dietary needs but I was wondering what do you feed your cichlids and what do you think of what I am feeding mine (Flower Horns), is there anything I am doing wrong or should change?

Under the understanding that feeding little and often helps to reduce aggression I have been doing the following:
Twice a day, morning and evening/night I feed supa tropical fish flakes.
Then once a day at lunch time I alternate between blood worms and "gamma blister - cichlid diet".

Also wanted to ask has anyone used "gamma blister - cichlid diet" and what are your thoughts on it? It contains Beef heart, white fish, gammarus shrimp and spinach.

Cheers.

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19 Jul 2012 01:02 #2 by Axolotl (mark gethings)
I guess no news is good news and if I was doing something majorly wrong someone would have set me straight by now?

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19 Jul 2012 12:13 #3 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
The bloodworm should be reduced to once a week.
Better to dump the flakes for cichlid sticks or pellets. I use New Era cichlid pellets (black tub)
Theyre sinking food, but if yours will feed from the surface then theirs more choice with floating food.

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19 Jul 2012 12:28 #4 by jeff (Jeff Scully)

Hi guys,

I realise different cichlids have different dietary needs but I was wondering what do you feed your cichlids and what do you think of what I am feeding mine (Flower Horns), is there anything I am doing wrong or should change?

Under the understanding that feeding little and often helps to reduce aggression I have been doing the following:
Twice a day, morning and evening/night I feed supa tropical fish flakes.
Then once a day at lunch time I alternate between blood worms and "gamma blister - cichlid diet".

Also wanted to ask has anyone used "gamma blister - cichlid diet" and what are your thoughts on it? It contains Beef heart, white fish, gammarus shrimp and spinach.

Cheers.


sorry for the late reply
I would change the flakes for cichlid pellets flake are only for small fish imo, gamma blisters are cool i also give mine wax worms, and crickets as a treat and they love it and veg wise every 2 days i give either courgettes, cucumber, peas, broccoli (stems), lettuce, and i throw in the odd plant once a month and every 2 wks i give some algae wafers, im one of very few that does this but i think it does the fish great great colours grow well and less aggression

jeff

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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19 Jul 2012 13:29 #5 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
+1
I add the veg for plecos but the cichlids to eat it too.
It should be part of their diet anyway.

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19 Jul 2012 14:47 #6 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Feeding cichlids
Check for the Ash percentage in the Food, the higher the content, the less the nutrients being absorbed, Ash is Scales, Feathers etc that cannot be absorbed and is used as a filler, it has no nutritional value.

Kev.

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19 Jul 2012 18:51 #7 by Axolotl (mark gethings)
Thanks guys,

my cichlids will not eat pellets, floating or sinking (although I think they may nibble at the sinking pellets), I have tried both. they also will not eat veg although I have only tried the plants in the tank and peas.

As regards ash content, I already check for that, the "supa" food I use now has 5.5% ash whereas the "aquarian" food I used to use (which I believe is very popular and in most pet stored and supermarkets) is 14% ash.

May I ask why I should reduce the the blood worms and is it ok to feed the "gamma blister - cichlid diet" as often as i do?

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19 Jul 2012 21:32 #8 by colly130 (Colin)
This may not work but if you throw in only one or two pellets at a time if one fish sees the other eating it they follow suit I did via. And it helped change my flake eaters to pellets now I just feed them pellets, may not work but another thing you could try is adding a few pellets in with their current food if they know they're gettin fed chances are they'll eat the pellets, hope that helps

Colly

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19 Jul 2012 22:00 #9 by jeff (Jeff Scully)

Thanks guys,

my cichlids will not eat pellets, floating or sinking (although I think they may nibble at the sinking pellets), I have tried both. they also will not eat veg although I have only tried the plants in the tank and peas.

As regards ash content, I already check for that, the "supa" food I use now has 5.5% ash whereas the "aquarian" food I used to use (which I believe is very popular and in most pet stored and supermarkets) is 14% ash.

May I ask why I should reduce the the blood worms and is it ok to feed the "gamma blister - cichlid diet" as often as i do?


i had the same prob with mine not eating pellets and especially a new fish, they use to go for them and spit them out go for them again and spit them out but after a while like a week or two they get use to them they are use to getting soft food but all of a sudden the food is hard a little trick i done for a few days was to soak the pellets for about 5mins in a cup of tank water before feeding them this helps them to get use to it and reduce the soaking time day by day till its straight in from the pack and like i said to me any flake food is not enough for any cichlid (they like to be full)
and its the same with veg introduce slowly bit by bit and say you were going to try it on a saturday dont feed them on friday they will be hungry and try anything
as for bloodworms ect. they should only be giving as a treat their good for them but dont get all their needs out of them like us eating steak its good for you but you cant survive on it you need other stuff

jeff

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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19 Jul 2012 22:53 #10 by Axolotl (mark gethings)
I have tried feeding them pellets that have been soaked and soft but the show absolutely no interest in them, however about an hour ago I soaked some "premium pond sticks" from aldi that I got for my turtles and they did show a little interest and ate some but not straight away. Also as I said before I think they have been picking at the sinking pellets.

So should I just cut out the flake food entirely and they will eventually start to eat the pellets and cut down on the bloodworms too? Oh and try the veg again?

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19 Jul 2012 23:18 #11 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
yeah id forget about the flakes and stick to pellets for a few days and try a bit of veg and see how they get on after all they do need their veg you will have healthier fish dont think they will benefit from the pond sticks try the new life spectrum 1mm pellets and then move on to bigger cichlid pellets when their use to the hard food

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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20 Jul 2012 18:21 #12 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
Alot of fish like Tetra Prima, but it would be a bit expensive as their main food.

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