A balanced diet for cichlids

Shortly after I joined tfk a most excellent member of the reference team ( Agent13) reccommended that I feed a balanced diet of foods to my jack dempsey cichlid. I had never really thought about that before. I have always fed a variety of foods; flakes and a variety of frozen fishfoods (bloodworm, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, krill, and silversides) ; but now after our discussion I also include fresh veg. My dempsey had always destroyed any plants I tried to put in his tank. Even ones he didn't eat he would violently rip to shreds, especialy anubias- he seemed to really hate anubias. I always viewed his behaviour as a display of aggression or a territorial issue. Looking back now I can see that he was probaly craving veg and was unsatified with my offerings. He loves sweet peas, canned corn and squash, won't eat carrots, cabbage, or green beans. His colors are A LOT more intense now and his background color is much darker. Best of all, he is no longer a plant-killer! I put a small anubias in his tank yesterday and it was still in one piece this morning.

Thankyou agent13 for the excellent advice , I thank you , my dempsey thanks you, and most of all, the anubias thanks you!
-skylight