1 green terror. Do silver dollars need vegetables in their diet?
Best Dither Fish
- Thread starter carsonrm01
- Start date
yes they should have vegetation in their diet, a vegetable based flake would be an easy way to include this. If you have aquatic plants silver dollars will eat them
Thanks!
Agree with Gourami Swami.
I purposely grow hair algae in my sumps as a nitrate consumer, but when it gets too thick, I feed clamps to my Andinoacara to graze on. Although a pellet such as Algae-Max containing a high content of Spirulina is perfect
I have fed algae to most omnivores cichlids, as well as other veggies.
video below of Etroplus suratensus ( Cichlids from India) eating Dandilions leaves
Etroplus eating dandilions
I purposely grow hair algae in my sumps as a nitrate consumer, but when it gets too thick, I feed clamps to my Andinoacara to graze on. Although a pellet such as Algae-Max containing a high content of Spirulina is perfect
I have fed algae to most omnivores cichlids, as well as other veggies.
video below of Etroplus suratensus ( Cichlids from India) eating Dandilions leaves
Etroplus eating dandilions
One of the most common misconceptions about cichlids, is that they are all carnivores, when in truth, "most" are opportunistic omnivores.
And as such in aquaria, in error are often fed Tilapia fillets, feeder fish, and or other meaty foods as a main diet.
Of the Central Americans, there are only two genera that are mainly predatory, Parachromis, and Petenia.
Their mouth shape and dentition is the dead give away.
But even with dovii, directly above, when stomach contents of adults were analyzed, over 50% of their gut load was found to be insects, and crustaceans.
And when you examine the mouth shape in most other Central American genera, the mouth shape tells an entirely different story.
Some examples
Cuuco
Vieja
Herichthys
Amatitlania
Cribroheros
I'm not saying any of the above would turn down a protein rich meal, and there may be members of each genus that special in either insects, small fish, snails or other meaty foods, but looking at the mouth and teeth suggest other food sources such as leaf litter, algae, or as in the case with Vieja, fallen seasonal fruit are normally a large part of their diet.
Many South Americans are also similar, and by looking at the mouth, we are given clues.
Crenicichla (below) predatory.
Acarichthys and most other Geophagines, omnivorous
Andinoacara...omnivores
And as such in aquaria, in error are often fed Tilapia fillets, feeder fish, and or other meaty foods as a main diet.
Of the Central Americans, there are only two genera that are mainly predatory, Parachromis, and Petenia.
Their mouth shape and dentition is the dead give away.
But even with dovii, directly above, when stomach contents of adults were analyzed, over 50% of their gut load was found to be insects, and crustaceans.
And when you examine the mouth shape in most other Central American genera, the mouth shape tells an entirely different story.
Some examples
Cuuco
Vieja
Herichthys
Amatitlania
Cribroheros
I'm not saying any of the above would turn down a protein rich meal, and there may be members of each genus that special in either insects, small fish, snails or other meaty foods, but looking at the mouth and teeth suggest other food sources such as leaf litter, algae, or as in the case with Vieja, fallen seasonal fruit are normally a large part of their diet.
Many South Americans are also similar, and by looking at the mouth, we are given clues.
Crenicichla (below) predatory.
Acarichthys and most other Geophagines, omnivorous
Andinoacara...omnivores
@duanes @Gourami Swami thanks for all the help!