Just looking to get some ideas or experience from any other malawi keepers, what do you feed your cichlids ? I use a combination of hikari gold, hikari staple, frozen daphina, tetra flakes and algae wafers. Sometimes supplemented with fresh prawns and peas.
Do any of you have any experience of dainichi foods or NLS (new life spectrum) as these seem to be really popular in america but can't seem to find any uk suppliers.
Have heard it said that the hikari foods sometimes cause small black spots on the fish - have seen no evidence of this myself but ...

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Teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever, give a man a fish and he'll want a new tank !.
Its not addictive - there's just nothing else !

I frequent a couple of Malawi forums and have never actually heard of any issues with Hikari foods.

For their main diet i generally use Hikari Excel pellets and JBL "Novo Rift" sinking sticks.

I supplement this with lettuce (normal round lettuce from supermarket, not iceberg lettuce) and courgette. I feed them this about 1-2 times a week.

I'll give them just frozen more "meaty" foods 1-2 times a week. This will be a mixture of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, cichlid mix and daphnia.

I'll chuck in the odd algae wafer once a week, but i prefer to save these for my bottom dwellers in the communit planted tank and also my Bristlenose bunch in the Parrot/Odd-Ball tank.

I have a few non Mbuna in there (some Tangs and a couple of Haps), so i try to feed a diet that overall pretty much caters for all the fish in the tank.

What i plan on adding to all this, is growing thick algae on plants pots by my kitchen window and sticking these in once a week, it's great to see the Mbuna grazing on it like they do in the wild.

And i've heard really good things about New Life Spectrum foods, i would imagine someone must be selling them on e-bay?

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My Set-Up's

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...et-up-925.html

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...et-up-918.html

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...l-set-929.html

I use Sera Granulated foods and JBL Rift mainly. Used Hikari for my Americans but now use JBL Cichlid sticks. Frozen wise, I use artemia, mysis and occasionally krill. Also prawns for the bigger fish. I sometime put in strips of Nori as some of the Haps love it. I have tried to use veg but none of them bother with it. Just ends up getting devoured by the Gibbi.

I have used NLS food before and found it to be quite good. Its pretty hard to find though. Only one of the 5 closest LFS to me stocks it. Pretty expensive too, I think its 11.99 for a 250g pot. You probs could find it cheaper on the net though.

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8' x 2' x 2' - Piece of Ocean.
6' x 2' x 18" - Wild Caught Zaire 'Moba' Frontosa
4' x 2' x 20" - Malawi
4' x 22" x 18" - Malawi + Victoria
4' x 18" x 18" - Breeding Cuban Cichlids.
Trigon 190 - Paratilapia Polleni
30" x 1' x 1' - Hospital Tank
2' x 1' x 1' - Tropical

and

7x - 1' and 2' cichlid fry tanks

I also use a combination of Hikari Cichlid Gold & Hikari Cichlid Staple along with ZM Discus sinking bits to feed my Malawis, I have both Mbuna and Malawi Haps and they are doing good on this as a every day food.

New Life Spectrum I find puts a kind of greasy layer on the surface of the water, I did feed NLS but not no more.

now im an expert on malawi i can contribute! i feed ocean nutrition malawi mix as the main diet with cucumber and the norm' frozen...

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WHO'S YA DADDY

also try some cucumber and oberjene you know the big dark purple fruit cant spell it lol then get some suckers and stick it to side of tank fantastic results as it improves the pigmentaion ie colour of fish

setup another malawi tank today ill get some pics when i got fish in it

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WHO'S YA DADDY

He's going Malawi Bonkers!

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My Set-Up's

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...et-up-925.html

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...et-up-918.html

http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...l-set-929.html

yep, im even thinking of converting the 6x2x2 into malawi...we shall see?

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WHO'S YA DADDY

I heard courgette/zuchini has ten times more goodness in it then cucumber.

All of fish without exception go nuts for it

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Your Mbuna or your life!