Jack Dempsey question
 

I have two smaller Jack Dempseys currently (maybe about 2.5 inches long) and I'm worried about their diet. I feed them a few Hikari cichlid gold pellets every morning, and they eat a few of them sometimes. I'm just worried about variety in their diet because I tried giving them a few smaller live rosy minnows and they bit the head off of one and then left the rest and won't touch them. For now I'll just keep feeding them pellets, but is there anything else I can do for them? I want my babies to be happy and healthy :)

frozen bloodworms or guppy fry work well.

Feeder fish are poor nutritional diet for cichlids. I would advise against it except on rare occasions for treats and they tend to carry disease when you get them from the store. Maybe a second kind of pellet? Also blood worms, brine shrimp, cut up night crawler, feeder shrimp and prawn would also probably be gone after.

Would the guppy fry fall under the category of feeder fish carrying diseases?

I would definately not purchase guppy fry from a store. O.o I have a breeder tank of just guppies, and I feed my cichlids pellets and the fry as supplemental. Which is what I had presumed you were asking about, supplemental food sources. I follow my parents method of raising cichlids, and have for the last 19 going on 20 years. They raised cichlids before that. I have never heard that you shouldn't feed live food (as long as it is healthy)

Live food in any animal tends to make it more aggressive, african cichlids should NOT have the ammount of protein feeders would be in their diet very much at all and cichlids are naturally omnivors, not carnivors. Thats why feeder fish should be limited. It isnt an ideal diet for them, Then again neither are quarter pounders or sirloin for every meal for us yet we still do it...

feed them a piece of lettuce as well, they love it once they realize they can eat it.

do not feed too many bloodworms as they are not a natural part of their diet and cause digestive problems. live earthworms from a reputable supplier (not your garden) can be feed to them as well.

Jack Dempsey are not african cichlids. There from south and/or central america. Not sure exactly, perhaps the profile will tell you. You can click on the shaded name to see it.

There are over 2000 species of cichlids. There are carnivores, omnivores and vegetarians.

I wasn't saying that Jack dempseys were. I was only using them for a point.

New life spectrum pellet's, Cichlid crisp's,tetra bit's,cricket's,chopped earthworms (not from lawn where pesticides have been used),chopped Krill,Cichlid bio-gold,bit's of shrimp or tilapia fillet, are all good foods for South American cichlid such as the Jack Dempsey.
Problem with feeder fish is two fold in my view.
One problem is associated with store bought fish and possible diseased fish which isn't out of the question considering the crowded horrible condition's that most stores keep their feeder's in.
Only takes one sick fish to infect whole tank of feeder's ,and then disease is passed on to your/my fish when diseased fish is offered as food.
Second most common problem is large fish can become fixated on feeder fish, and refuse to eat other more nutritional foods.It's tough to wean them away from live foods once they make the menu.
Shrimp, and fish, either live or frozen and then thawed,,, are sometimes rich in Thiaminase depending on particular fish, which is said to deplete vitamin's that fish need and therefore should only be offered as treat rather than daily diet of same.