shrimps?

[twistedimage92]

i bought some shrimp for my cichlids this weekend... they got eatten right away. they are 10 for $1.50. i have a 10 gallon tank that i have set up with a air pump in and some of the shrimp i have left... how fast will they reproduce? on ebay, they have a brine shrimp hatchery that you put right in your tank... does anyone have this? what does everyone els do about live feeding?

 

[JNevaril]

uhh....

i would be really leery of feeding cichlids, especially malawi cichlids, that much protien..their little bodies can't digest it very well, and it can cause a nasty disease..

Their main diet is algae.....(many cichlids...NOT ALL....just many...)



http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

 

[Zulu]

My baby jack dempsey loves to hunt down shrimp. That said, he's no african.

I'm not sure on the breeding time - I imagine it can't be all that long tho, seeing as you can buy so many for so little. I'd buy 10-20 and put them in a well planted tank and just wait. The LFS had a few breed in one of their tanks within a few weeks, the little ones are mighty tiny, but fully formed.

I'm actually trying to decide between live bearers or shrimp in my 10 gallon to provide live food that I know to be safe for my dempsey as he grows.

 

[wayne]

The main diet of most malawi mbuna cichlids is not algae. Most of them, including the ones you most comonly see pick thro' the algae looking for small crustaceans generally grouped together under the name 'aufwuchs'. For most mbuna, algae is eaten only as a side effect of gathering crustaceans.
There are some strictly herbivorous mbuna (look for really underslung jaws), and I'm not saying don't feed them greens, as they really need them. But to say protein is posion for mbuna and tropheus is nothing like correct. Nor do I think diet is the primary cause of bloat unless you're really abusing them

 

[JNevaril]

hmm.

that then, goes against everything i have ever been told about malawi mbuna cichlids.

 

[wayne]

There is one hell of a lot of mythinformation on mbuna, but if you look at the work of people who work with cichlid jaw structure, there are very few that are strict herbivores. I mean, they're still ingesting a lot of algae, but to say feed them 100% greens is just not correct.
Compare the jaw structures, shape of Tropheus (close to a pure herbivore) to that of a yellow lab (micro predator)

 

[JNevaril]

All true...

but, a strict diet of pure protien, i.e. shrimp/bloodworms/etc....is NOT too healthy, is it not?

Yes, feeding them 100% algae cannot be by any means healthy, but neither is feeding them 100% of anything.

moderation is key.

 

[wayne]

I fully agree.

 

[Exevious]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com

Please use the search function and then you will find the info you seek.
No need to post a whole new question thread, your topics will be covered with the search function.

Enjoy.

Cichlids can enjoy much variety in thier diet. I do weekly snail round-ups from my other tanks, and feed them to my cichlids. They love them... I love the free food!