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DIY Apistogramma foods?

ThePuzzleMaker

New Member
Messages
17
Hello everyone,
I am farely new to apistogramma keeping. I am going to get some cacatuoides or agasizii but before doing so I want to be extremely ready to cover any eventuality.
I planned on feeding them generic cichlid pellets, but realized that I'd like to give them a special more personalized diet, and skip all of the fillers.

So I was wondering if you could help me select ingredients to make my own cichlid food. I have a veggie mix that I prepared for my Mbuna tank but I don't know if apistos would it eat too.

I would appreciate all of your advise! :)
 

Mike Wise

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I find that apistos aren't great at eating prepared foods. If you work at it they will eventually accept it (grudgingly) My DIY apisto food is hatching baby brine shrimp and raising Grindal worms.
 

ThePuzzleMaker

New Member
Messages
17
I dont have access to brine shrimp, but I do have access to basically all the Grindal worms I want. Do you think a mainly grindal worm diet would work?
 

Mike Wise

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No! It is too high in fat and leads to obesity. Fat fish die young. Worms are excellent as a supplement to other foods. I wouldn't use the more than 2 - 3 times per week. The only times to use worms more often is when you want to get a female in spawning trim or have a skinny/sick fish that needs fattening up. Have you though of using frozen foods? Apistos eat most frozen foods.
 

ThePuzzleMaker

New Member
Messages
17
Sadly frozen foods are not available to me where I live. I've been searching for eggs to hatch baby brine shrimp and I found a supplier earlier today.
Owning a trio of apistos, how long should 30 grams of eggs last me?

I'm new to live foods if you havent noticed already haha
 

Mike Wise

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Will you feed them only to the apistos or will there be other fish in the tank? Just curious, where do you live that you can't get frozen foods (general location, nothing specific)?
 

Aquaman074

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
24
I don't intent to steal this thread but how do you maintain Grinsal worms and are blood worms consider high in fat as well?
Thank you
 

Mike Wise

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I use Dave Ramsey's method:
. Dave BTW is one of the founders of the ASG back in the 1980s. Grindal worms are true worms (annalids) while bloodworms are the larvae of a midge (insect). As such, bloodworms are not true worms and are much lower in fat. If you are sure where the bloodworms are collected (some Asian sources are collected in highly polluted sources, often containing heavy metals) they are a natural food source for apistos.
 

ThePuzzleMaker

New Member
Messages
17
I'll feed only the 3 apistos, how much will 30g of BBS eggs last me?


I live in Lima, Peru. Here it's not that difficult to find live food, but because its a big city, it's not that accessible to do it often.
Sadly stores here don't sell frozen foods, I don't know why.
 

Mike Wise

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11,201
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OK, that makes sense. I would say a 30 gm bottle should last several months. I use about 30 gm of eggs in a month, but I feed many many more apistos (especially fry). If I were in your situation I think that I would feed freeze-dried and dry food every morning and live baby brine shrimp later in the day and hope they will accept dry food.
 

ThePuzzleMaker

New Member
Messages
17
Thanks for the help! Thats probably what i'll do.

I'll feed dried foods like Tubifex, flakes, cichlid pellets and see what they like the most. And when feeding live I'll give them mainly baby brine, some microworms and twice a month or so daphnia.
 

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