Blackworm only diet for cichlids?

[confusedfishkeeper]

Hello,

I have 2 small uaru cichlids, 2 juvenile frontosas and a kirin parrot. I have tried flakes and pallets (Hikari and Tetra) but the fish did not like it. Not one bit. The frontosas and the parrot won't touch it, the uaru's would grudging eat them once in a while. I have been feeding them blackworms since a week and they are loving it. Probably this is not a balanced diet for them but my fish is happy and I am happy to see them happy. But would this cause a problem in the future? Should they have dry food once in a while?

 

[duanes]

Uaru are primarily vegetarians in nature as adults.

 

[fishguy1978]

Yes, there will be nutritional deficiencies if only fed black worms. Black worms should only be fed occasionally. I would recommend you try feeding a variety of foods so that your fish don't become picky. You can try not feeding for a few days and then feed only pellets or flake. Given time and patience they will come around and start to accept what is placed before them.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Agreed the blackworms will not be a balanced diet for the fish. Prepared food should be the staple as it will have a certain percentage of all ingredients protein, usually kelp or spirulina, etc.
There are some things you can do to get them to eat the pellets. An old trick is to soak them in some water with fresh garlic clove (smashed up) so they absorb the garlic. The fish seem to like this and eat the food.
Also, don't be afraid to go a few days without feeding to get them hungry. They will probably eat the prepared food if they are hungry enough and it won't hurt them. I used to leave my fish regularly for up to a week when I went on vacation and they would be fine.
May also be other factors stopping them from eating the pellets. Are they floating? Maybe they are scared to eat from the surface, and like the worms because they sink.

 

[tlindsey]

Fish are pretty smart and will eat food like Blackworms, Bloodworms, Frozen Brine Shrimp that doesn't meet their dietary needs because it probably does fast great to them. I have a Datnoid that tries to outsmart me by refusing to eat pellets so I allow the Dat to go hungry for a day and offer the pellets again. The Datnoid will be hungry and eat the pellets it prefer's to eat Tilapia. I agree with everyone's statements. Make sure every fish specie in your aquarium eat what they need.

 

[Toiletcar]

Also check your water parameters, and make sure the fish aren’t sick. Stressed and sick fish often reject food. Most cichlids are greedy eaters and will eat anything. IME not accepting food is an indicator of a larger problem.

 

[confusedfishkeeper]

But if the fish are sick wouldn't they reject bloodworm as well? They greedily devour bloodworm especially the uaru which I read was more of a herbivore.

 

[Rocksor]

But if the fish are sick wouldn't they reject bloodworm as well? They greedily devour bloodworm especially the uaru which I read was more of a herbivore.

Yeah, you have picky eaters. Time to starve them for at least 1 week. At 6" total length, fish can survive easily without eating for 2 weeks.

Stop feeding live blackworms, and move on to frozen blood worms (since they last longer). As the blood worm cube defrost, use the juices to soak 1mm floating pellets. The defrosted bw and pellet mix should only be fed one a week until you can get them to only eat pellets. Offer floating pellets 1 time everyday, and remove after 15 minutes (do not be in the room). Also, as a supplement during the week, clip pieces of Nori sheets (dried seaweed found in Asian stores) to the side of the tank for the Uaru.

 

[jjohnwm]

Almost any fish will greedily chow down on foods that they find appealing; this certainly doesn't mean they are getting balanced nutrition. More likely, they are adapted by evolution to snap up every worm-like food item they come across...but in a natural setting they wouldn't come across many. A grazer like the Uaru would, without actually "hunting" for them, occasionally come across small worms, crustacea or other tidbits and eat them. This would add elements to their diet that would be missing from a purely-vegetarian intake, and it's this variety that results in balanced nutrition.

Humans are evolved to crave fat; a skinny proto-human running around dodging Sabertooths and subsisting on roots and twigs would get a nutritional boost, and a huge influx of essential calories, from an animal carcass (killed or scavenged)...so we evolved to crave that. But look what happens when a modern human has unrestricted access to fatty foods; we get a population of unhealthy obese individuals. Would you allow your kids to subsist on a diet of candy and Macdonald's burgers, simply because that's what they said they wanted?

Eating properly...for humans or for fish...requires some intelligent thought to balance what we "want" with what we "need". In the case of the fish we have to do the thinking for them.

 

[confusedfishkeeper]

Thank you all for the valuable advise. Extremely helpful and much appreciated.