Shrimp and Peas Mix

[BrianBerg]

Hi all- after being out of the dwarf cichlid world a while, I am jumping back in. In the past I have used Ad Konings shrimp and peas mix in the morning, when they are hungrier and more likely to take it. In the afternoon some frozen food of some sort. I was breeding africans before dwarves and noticed better health and growth rates with the added greens and vitamins. Then I fed it to the apistos and it did the same for them.
In one experiment, I took some checkerboards from the same batch as a LFS manager. He fed frozen and live while I fed the same foods except mine received a Wattley formula with vitamins in the mornings. After six months mine were nearly twice as big and breeding before the other group.
Does anyone have experience using these types of foods with apistos and such? Are there other ingredients to add that would help, such as banana?
Thanks, Brian

 

[apistoireland]

Hi Brian,
I have been using shrimp mixed in with a few other ingridients. It started off as a self-mix discus food but my apistos love it too and they do grow bigger. Here is my mix: 1 lb of raw shrimp, 1lb of cooked mussles, one pack of baby spinach (steamed), 2 cloves of garlic, 2 teaspoons of paprika (brings out reds). I also add some baby vitamine supplement. It is called Abidex. You probably can't get it in the US but any baby vitamine supplement will do. I also do the same mix without the mussles but using 2 lbs of shrimp. Mussles are quite fattening and hard on the liver. I use the shrimp/mussle combination for juveniles and they will grow faster. Shrimp only for the adults. Mussles are really good to get fish to feed when they have gone off food.
Before I forget, here is how to prepare the mix.
Steam the spinach, chop the garlic and give the whole lot a spin in the food blender until it is a fine paste. Add the shrimp and mussle and blend it until it is a quite fine mix but they should be still some lumps in it. you can now add an egg and bind it with some gelantine. It will keep in the freezer for some months.
I would take it easy on the peas since they are full of starch and dwarf chichlids find it hard to break down. Does nothing for your water quality either. Spirulina might be an option but it is quite expensive.