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What dry food should I feed my Apistos?

fyrefish

Member
Messages
54
Hi,
Sorry if this is the wrong place, this is my first post here.
I have a pair (male and female) of apistogramma panduro and was wondering what the best type of dry food is to feed them. I know as with all fish, live or frozen food is far superior for long term fish health, but I don't currently have any. I have been feeding them API bottom feeder pellets. I also have plain Aqua One tropical flakes, but the fish seem to far prefer the pellets, and I feed them 3 - 4 a day. They don't start eating it all instantly, but If I wait 10 minutes then come back it is gone. I think they wait for the water to soften it up a bit. Is there a specific food type that is good for cichlids? I was picking up some snails from my LFS today and looked briefly at the food, and I saw some Cichlid Gold, which I heard is good, but it came in 3 different sizes and I wasn't sure which would be best for dwarf cichlids. (I believe the sizes were large, mini and baby, but I'm not 100% sure). Is this food good for apistos, and if so, what size should I get? Or are there any better foods? (Sorry for long post).
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
I don't like to recommend brands, because often the brands available to me might not be available to you. So I'll tell you what any dry food should bring to the table. (or the tank).

Ingredients:
- No grains. If the ingredients list wheat, wheat flour, corn flour, rice flour or other grains or carbs (that includes potato), don't get it. Carbs are useless for the fishes digestion system and only empty calories. This leads to fatty livers and organs and untimely death. Soy and legumes are also not optimal. A binder like wheat gluten is ok, though (and pretty much necessary for the stuff to not disintegrate to dust.).
- No non-descript fish meal. It's a low quality filler. Main ingredients like insect (larvae), crustaceans and mollusks are great, full fish (like herring or salmon) are ok, still not optimal, but no reason to toss it.
- No bloodworms. Not every Apistogramma has problems with those, but even in dry foods they can cause problems.
- Medium-High fat content. The fish have to draw energy from proteins and fats. Fat is not completely bad. 15-20% are ok in combination with 30-40% protein.

Form:
Pellets and tablets are to be preferred over flakes. Apistogramma (and most dwarf cichlids for that matter) have a feeding orientation towards the bottom, chewing sand and foraging among leaf litter and mulm. So food has to sink. Of you have any tetras or pencilfish with them it's really important to feed dry foods that sink fast enough so enough food reaches the cichlids.
So flakes are a waste due to floating too long and sinking much too slow.

Amounts:
I usually feed dry foods only 1 day a week, but if you feed it daily, make sure every fish eats it and every fish gets some of it. I conditioned my Apisto to come to the surface (at least half way) when I hold my hand over it. Then I let go of the pellets and slowly move my hand away. I could also just throw it in, but with 13 quite large pencilfish it wouldn't reach the Apisto.

Be aware that I wrote this specifically thinking of dwarf cichlids. This does not apply 1:1 to any Rift Lakers, Central Americans or bigger South American cichlids. Especially not the composition.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Several brands of dry foods have been recommended by apisto keepers in the past. Do a search for "dry food". What will and will not be acceptable for your fish depends on species, wild or tank raised

I consider dry foods as a supplement to a live/frozen food diet only. To me if the fish are not immediately interested in a food I do not use it. It generally just falls to the bottom where it disintegrates or falls between the substrate. Some may be sifted out later but a lot of its quality is gone. If truly interested in keeping apistos (or any fish for that matter) feed what they will readily eat.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,366
Mine seem pretty happy with fluval bug bite - they do not like northfin bug bite (too much garlic i think). Also bit surprise but they really go after spirulina 20; was feeding some young cardinals i put with them while they grew out and they took a strong liking to the stuff.
 

fyrefish

Member
Messages
54
I don't like to recommend brands, because often the brands available to me might not be available to you. So I'll tell you what any dry food should bring to the table. (or the tank).

Ingredients:
- No grains. If the ingredients list wheat, wheat flour, corn flour, rice flour or other grains or carbs (that includes potato), don't get it. Carbs are useless for the fishes digestion system and only empty calories. This leads to fatty livers and organs and untimely death. Soy and legumes are also not optimal. A binder like wheat gluten is ok, though (and pretty much necessary for the stuff to not disintegrate to dust.).
- No non-descript fish meal. It's a low quality filler. Main ingredients like insect (larvae), crustaceans and mollusks are great, full fish (like herring or salmon) are ok, still not optimal, but no reason to toss it.
- No bloodworms. Not every Apistogramma has problems with those, but even in dry foods they can cause problems.
- Medium-High fat content. The fish have to draw energy from proteins and fats. Fat is not completely bad. 15-20% are ok in combination with 30-40% protein.

Form:
Pellets and tablets are to be preferred over flakes. Apistogramma (and most dwarf cichlids for that matter) have a feeding orientation towards the bottom, chewing sand and foraging among leaf litter and mulm. So food has to sink. Of you have any tetras or pencilfish with them it's really important to feed dry foods that sink fast enough so enough food reaches the cichlids.
So flakes are a waste due to floating too long and sinking much too slow.

Amounts:
I usually feed dry foods only 1 day a week, but if you feed it daily, make sure every fish eats it and every fish gets some of it. I conditioned my Apisto to come to the surface (at least half way) when I hold my hand over it. Then I let go of the pellets and slowly move my hand away. I could also just throw it in, but with 13 quite large pencilfish it wouldn't reach the Apisto.

Be aware that I wrote this specifically thinking of dwarf cichlids. This does not apply 1:1 to any Rift Lakers, Central Americans or bigger South American cichlids. Especially not the composition.
Thanks for the detailed response! The pellets I am feeding them consist mostly of shrimp, and they seem to be liking them, they go for them as soon as I put them in. I think i have been feeding them the right amount, as when I got my male he had nipped fins and was smaller and less colourful than the female. But after 3 weeks or so, his fins have grown back and he is significantly larger than his tankmate!
Also, do you have any live food recommendations? I have an old 'sea monkey' kit, (I think they are brine shrimp) and I was wondering if apistos would enjoy this?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
Also, do you have any live food recommendations? I have an old 'sea monkey' kit, (I think they are brine shrimp) and I was wondering if apistos would enjoy this?
Yeah, that seamonkey kit will probably not produce the amounts you would need and also not the size. My A. hongsloi ignores freshly hatched nauplii, he only goes for the fully grown ones.
But Artemia (brine shrimp) are a good choice. Also white mosquito larvae and daphnia. If you want to bring them in spawning condition black mosquito larvae are also great.
I don't feed live tubifex, as they can carry parasites, but in principle if you have a source you trust, once every other month for some days they are ok.
Very small crickets and drosophila flies are also interesting as food for well habituated bigger males.

Bloodworms/red mosquito larvae are, as I said in the other post, a bit of a hit or death. I had fish die from it, I have seen other peoples fish die from it. It doesn't have to happen, but it can with a too big likelihood for my liking to try my luck.

Important is in the end that the foods are small enough to fit in the mouth and not so small they ignore it. "Moving targets" are always preferred.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Contrary to MacZ, every apisto I ever kept (in the thousands over the past 40 years), eagerly ate baby brine shrimp. This is a commonly recommended live food for apistos.
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
Contrary to MacZ, every apisto I ever kept (in the thousands over the past 40 years), eagerly ate baby brine shrimp. This is a commonly recommended live food for apistos.
I didn't mean to imply that, I admittedly phrased it very unfortunately. I have just noticed that one, quite big, fish to ignore them. I should have made clear that my observation only applied to the bigger fish. Smaller ones definitely eat them. No question.
My bad, I didn't write it correctly.
 
Last edited:

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,366
What I want to know is how many bbs can an adult nijjensi eat in 30 seconds ? 20? 50? 1000? Hum... maybe we should have a eating contest... among the apisto.
-
More seriously i wonder how many bbs an apisto would need to eat a week to be healthy. I know fishes dont' need to eat that much but bbs are really really small.
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
Why 30 seconds? With live BBS you add some mililiters and the fish will be eating and foraging in little bites for an hour or longer.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,366
Why 30 seconds? With live BBS you add some mililiters and the fish will be eating and foraging in little bites for an hour or longer.
Do you want to stand there for an hour counting each bbs the fish eats ?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
No, but I think the realities of feeding with BBS make it rather unnecessary to know the amount within 30 seconds.
 

Nemesis9

New Member
Messages
15
I’ve tried various food for my Macmasteri and found he seems to prefer Vitalis. Not sure if this brand is available outside of the U.K though.
They do a specific S.A cichlid soft sinking pellet which is high in protein
 

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