Food for Oscars and Flowerhorn

[Cadillac15]

Currently I am feeding my oscars and flowerhorn a mix of Hikari Cichlid Gold, Hikari Blood Red Parrot+, and North Fin Tropical Sticks. The North fin seems to be decent food by the ingredients list, but I'm not sold on the Hikari as it has a lot of fillers right up front.

I want to start by giving them some raw shrimp, but (stupid question) do you feed it to them frozen or thaw it out first?

Other than the North Fin, what other foods would you suggest (I don't live feed so not that please)? I was looking at Ron's Cichlid food and the ingredients seem to be really good but I have no experience with it. What foods would you guys recommend? The Oscars are about 2 years old and 12" each, the Flowerhorn is 6" and I've had him a couple weeks so want to get him on something good right away. Thanks!

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Hikari is junk, I wouldn't touch it myself. For some reason, it seems to be highly recommended around here and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Northfin is good. They have a "krill gold" version as well if you want something for red colouring. Other foods I'd recommend are NLS and Bug Bites. I have all three on rotation for all my cichlids (except the herbivores, they don't get Bug Bites and I have the veggie versions of NLS and Northfin for them).

I always thaw anything that I buy/keep frozen before feeding it.

No experience with Ron's personally, but after taking a quick peek at their adult cichlid formula I like the ingredient list and would definitely feed it to my fish.

 

[Rtc/tsn]

Currently I am feeding my oscars and flowerhorn a mix of Hikari Cichlid Gold, Hikari Blood Red Parrot+, and North Fin Tropical Sticks. The North fin seems to be decent food by the ingredients list, but I'm not sold on the Hikari as it has a lot of fillers right up front.

I want to start by giving them some raw shrimp, but (stupid question) do you feed it to them frozen or thaw it out first?

Other than the North Fin, what other foods would you suggest (I don't live feed so not that please)? I was looking at Ron's Cichlid food and the ingredients seem to be really good but I have no experience with it. What foods would you guys recommend? The Oscars are about 2 years old and 12" each, the Flowerhorn is 6" and I've had him a couple weeks so want to get him on something good right away. Thanks!

If you’re gonna feed them shrimp then let them thaw out and rinse them first because sometimes they add salt to frozen shrimp. I feed my flowerhorn hikari cichlid gold and blood parrot plus, I think north fin might have a bit much protein as a staple diet for a flowerhorn but I’m not sure as I don’t have it available around here

 

[Cadillac15]

Hikari is junk, I wouldn't touch it myself. For some reason, it seems to be highly recommended around here and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Northfin is good. They have a "krill gold" version as well if you want something for red colouring. Other foods I'd recommend are NLS and Bug Bites. I have all three on rotation for all my cichlids (except the herbivores, they don't get Bug Bites and I have the veggie versions of NLS and Northfin for them).

I always thaw anything that I buy/keep frozen before feeding it.

No experience with Ron's personally, but after taking a quick peek at their adult cichlid formula I like the ingredient list and would definitely feed it to my fish.

I do use bug bites for my community tank and my betta. I just feel they are a bit small for my Oscars and flowerhorn. I'll have to check if they make larger pellets!

 

[Cadillac15]

I reached out to Ron's cichlids to ask about their food. Although it's marketed towards African cichlids, they use it for their large Oscars and flowerhorn as well. I think I'm going to give it a try.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

I do use bug bites for my community tank and my betta. I just feel they are a bit small for my Oscars and flowerhorn. I'll have to check if they make larger pellets!

They do, I feed them to my 10" male midas. They're 5-6mm pellets I believe.

 

[Man-made Monsters]

Currently I am feeding my oscars and flowerhorn a mix of Hikari Cichlid Gold, Hikari Blood Red Parrot+, and North Fin Tropical Sticks. The North fin seems to be decent food by the ingredients list, but I'm not sold on the Hikari as it has a lot of fillers right up front.

I want to start by giving them some raw shrimp, but (stupid question) do you feed it to them frozen or thaw it out first?

Other than the North Fin, what other foods would you suggest (I don't live feed so not that please)? I was looking at Ron's Cichlid food and the ingredients seem to be really good but I have no experience with it. What foods would you guys recommend? The Oscars are about 2 years old and 12" each, the Flowerhorn is 6" and I've had him a couple weeks so want to get him on something good right away. Thanks!

Your Oscar’s have a much stronger stomach then your Flowerhorn does. If you feed shrimp to a Flowerhorn I strongly recommend chopping it into tiny chunks. If not you run the risk of it causing blockage in your Flowerhorns intestines which can be fatal. I kept and breed Flowerhorns for almost two decades.
Northfin is an amazing food that I use in multiple forms. Hikari is garbage. Hikari Bio Gold Plus (blue and silver bag) is the only one I used regularly in the past. New life spectrum is great but some fish just simply won’t eat it. Omega One is ok. Not great, but ok.

 

[Cadillac15]

Your Oscar’s have a much stronger stomach then your Flowerhorn does. If you feed shrimp to a Flowerhorn I strongly recommend chopping it into tiny chunks. If not you run the risk of it causing blockage in your Flowerhorns intestines which can be fatal. I kept and breed Flowerhorns for almost two decades.
Northfin is an amazing food that I use in multiple forms. Hikari is garbage. Hikari Bio Gold Plus (blue and silver bag) is the only one I used regularly in the past. New life spectrum is great but some fish just simply won’t eat it. Omega One is ok. Not great, but ok.

Good to know. I will refrain from feeding the flowerhorn shrimp and will just feed it to my Oscars

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Ahh good call on the mention above, I neglected to mention Omega One myself. It's what I would consider a good mid-range food on the quality spectrum. Not nearly as good as Northfin, NLS or the Bug Bites, but definitely much better than the Hikari anything.