what can they eat besides flake food?

mamabear

we just got a green severum that's about 3" and a gold severum around 2". should we get them some kind of cichlid pellet food soon or wait til they're older? i'm mostly wanting to know what to give them aside from the flakes and how often. for example, can i feed them baby shrimp either frozen or canned a couple times a week as a treat? thanks a bunch!

aunt kymmie

Welcome to the Forum!!

I have dwarf cichlids which I aquired at 1 inch. I immediatley feed them a good quality cichlid pellet, along with frozen (or freeze dried) blood worms, brine shrimp, daphnia, beefheart, live blackworms.
Their staple diet consists of quality pellets and flakes.
I feed the worms, shrimp, beefheart, etc. every few days.

You probably already know this, but your fish are going to quickly outgrow a 55.

mamabear

thank you for the info! And yes, we're growing out the loaches in the tank for now but we're fanatics and plan to be purchasing a larger tank and will situate the fish as they grow. We're waiting and looking for a deal on a used 125 gallon!!! I will go crazy when we finally get it we're absolute fish addicts lol

mamabear

[quote=mamabear;180289we're growing out the loaches in the tank for nowl[/quote]

well not just the loaches i know the other fish get big as well but they are teeny tiny at the moment! and so are the raphael catfish they're not even 1" yet. just hope they don't grow too fast!