Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / March 2006

I feed mine Nutrafin Spirulina Cichlid sticks as a staple and give
frozen brine shrimp occassionally as a treat.

All fish are growing well, healthy and breeding like rabbits... :-)

Gill

You'll find a lot of different cichlid foods out there for Mbuna. I believe
a lot of them to be inappropriate though. Most people I talk to who feed
these inappropriate foods claim their Mbuna have lived on it for years and
are doing fine, a month later you'll hear they lost a fish, "maybe to
aggression."

For most Mbuna, you'll want to stick with any food that is made for
herbivores.
Omega One cichlid flakes are fish based and not good for Mbuna,
However, Omega One makes a good herbivore flake.
Any type of Spirulina based foods. (Aquatrol, OSI, etc) makes a great food
base.
New Life Spectrum cichlid pellets are good for a couple times a week.
There's also an occasional feeding of brine shrimp (as Gil mentioned) and
I've found quite a few people who feed their Mbuna snow peas as a treat.

In all cases, I'd only feed once a day. Even feeding our fish once a day
gives them more food than they'd be getting in the lake. It'll cut down on
waste produced and the amount of uneaten food, which should bring down
nitrate levels in between water changes.
Sorry, if I sound preachy. I just woke up. ;-)
Tim

NLS, Hagen Spirulina flake, Omega One Veggie flake.  IMO, those are good
choices in feeding Malawian cichlids.  As AC said, feed only once a day.