Why cant i feed blood worm to my Malawi's?

Question

Why cant i feed blood worm to my Malawi's?

Answer 1

Feeding:

Labidochromis Caeruleus are Mbuna and Mbuna need vegetables (herbivores) while other Cichlids mainly feed in high protein, frozen and even live foods (omnivores, carnivores or piscivores). Providing Yellow Labs with too much protein may cause the Malawi bloat disease which is extremely difficult to be treated and usually fatal. Restrict food stuffs to good quality Flake food with a high vegetable content and pellets and alternate these with High vegetable content frozen food, Lettuce on a clip (Labs love Lettuce!), shelled peas and once a week or so Live brine shrimp. Avoid Tubifex and blood worms because although they will eat it with relish, tubifex worms should be avoided since they are reported to carry many microorganisms which may harm your fish. Leave them without any food at least once a week.

Answer 2

wish I had as much info as you have. god luck

Answer 3

I assume you're talking about Lake Malawi cichlids.

Unfortunately, there are too many species to be able to give an accurate answer.  Some are omnivores, some carnivores, and some vegetarians (like many Mbunas).  Most need a variety in their diets, others target specific foods.

Bloodworms and some other foods will cause them to bloat and probably die.

Although the Labidochromis caeruleus is a mbuna, it is primarily an insectivore, but also eats snails, other molluscs, and a variety of other foods.

Answer 4

I have Tangs but I've kept Malawis before. This answer may be more specific to Tangs but here goes:

The digestive tract is shorter in predominantly herbiverous fish (which a vast majority of Malawis are) and thus feeding harder-to-digest foods such as blood worms is a bad idea generally causing bloat (an imbalance in the gut's flora/fawna). I also believe that the generally quality of production of blood worm is poor and creating further issues while the PH (if frozen) can be high.

Feeding a mix of veggy food and live brine shrimp will work a treat while spectrum cichlid pellets are also spot on.

Then again, I may be wrong.

Answer 5

It's my understanding that certain African cichlids need a more herbivore diet, too much protein can cause bloat.  Usually some blood worms or brine shrimp can be fed once week tops, but stick with spirulina flakes as their main staple.