# What do you feed?



## tylernorton (Mar 7, 2009)

i am looking to find out what you guys feed.?. I was wondering if you guys have any opinions on what to feed my cichlids to bring out there colors but also give them good grow rates. i have 15 african cichlids in a 90 gallon tank. right now im feeding hikari cichlid staples... the guy at the store told me this was not a good choice.. just wondering what you all use.


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## MiGsTeR (Jan 19, 2008)

I use hikari gold and shrimp pellets


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## exodon king (Mar 25, 2009)

For color, there's nothing better then Dainichi Ultima.
I think the formula might have growth properties as well, but I'm not sure.
You can also use Dainichi Xl-Pro and Hikari Bio-gold.


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## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

exodon king said:


> For color, there's nothing better then Dainichi Ultima.
> I think the formula might have growth properties as well, but I'm not sure.
> You can also use Dainichi Xl-Pro and Hikari Bio-gold.


Yes I use Hikari as a main food as it contains all the necessary nutrients for their diet and then give them spirulina as a snack. The combination of those two with a well maintained tank should make those colours POP!


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## exodon king (Mar 25, 2009)

spiriulina does not contain nearly enough beta carotene. but this can be supplemented with whole shrimp or krill. 
hikari bio-gold is a very good staple food, and contains all the vitamins and minerals your fish needs to promote a healthy diet. if youre just looking for a nice round food, its the way to go for sure. there are other products, but this is a mainstay in the hobby. and its reasonably priced. 
however if you want some crazy color, definitely check out the dainichi. best thing iove come across over the years. much better then NLS, omega1, ect...


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## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

exodon king said:


> spiriulina does not contain nearly enough beta carotene. but this can be supplemented with whole shrimp or krill.
> hikari bio-gold is a very good staple food, and contains all the vitamins and minerals your fish needs to promote a healthy diet. if youre just looking for a nice round food, its the way to go for sure. there are other products, but this is a mainstay in the hobby. and its reasonably priced.
> however if you want some crazy color, definitely check out the dainichi. best thing iove come across over the years. much better then NLS, omega1, ect...


lol hikari bio-gold is really what I meant but I've never used any of their other products so I just used the company name.. My bad







The Bio Gold is definitely the best bang for your buck. I have shrimp pellets as well but dislike using them as they cause too much of a mess in the tank. It's funny I used to keep RBP's and wanted to stock my 90 gal with them but the Cichlids I find are much more entertaining and just as aggressive. Minus the sharp sharp teeth


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## exodon king (Mar 25, 2009)

i usually dont suggest the lower quality pellets from hikari, like the cichlid staple or cichlid gold (green or red bags). theyre ok, but its a real basic formula, and you will need to supplement a few other pellets and other foods to get all the vitamions that you could get from bio-gold. also, while "cichlid gold" claims to have color enhancing properties, i have found that it really does not make much of a difference, if any.

if you really want something more entertaining then both your cichlids and P's, id suggest looking into some exodons


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## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

exodon king said:


> i usually dont suggest the lower quality pellets from hikari, like the cichlid staple or cichlid gold (green or red bags). theyre ok, but its a real basic formula, and you will need to supplement a few other pellets and other foods to get all the vitamions that you could get from bio-gold. also, while "cichlid gold" claims to have color enhancing properties, i have found that it really does not make much of a difference, if any.
> 
> if you really want something more entertaining then both your cichlids and P's, id suggest looking into some exodons


I definitely agree, When I was researching foods my lfs informed me on using the bio-gold as a main food and like I stated above the shrimp pellets or spirulina as a snack. From what I understand as well is that with the bio-gold you don't even really need to use the shrimp pellets or spirulina as a snack since the bio-gold covers all of their nutritional needs.


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## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

Just to add as well I started using "Omega One" Natural protein formula medium cichlid pellets and they are awesome as well.


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## sapir (Jun 20, 2008)

my tanganyikens did great on new life spectrum


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