Cichlid Fry - Food For Those Hungry Little Guys

Learning what to feed cichlid fry is not a difficult idea to grasp, but if you are new to the tropical fish world and you have some newly hatched fry, you may not be sure what you should do. All you need is a few pointers to get you headed in the right direction, and that is what I am going to try to help you with.

There are basically two types of brooding that you will find with cichlids. These types are mouth brooding and open brooding. Yes, there are variations of these two types of brooding, but breaking them down into two types will do for now. We are interested in what to feed these cichlid fry once they are basically free swimming.

The yolk sac is the main source of food for newly hatched cichlid fry, but it will be depleted after a few days or so. After the yolk sac is gone, they will become free swimming and will need food if you want them to survive. Freshly hatched brine shrimp are a great food for free swimming cichlid fry.

Yes, they make a great food for fry of any species, but if you don't have any brine shrimp eggs ready to be hatched, what should you feed your baby cichlids

Feed cichlid fry hardboiled egg yolks. I am sure you have never heard that tip before. What you need to do is take a small amount of the egg yolk and mix it with a little water just until it makes the mixture flow. Experiment with it. Eggs are cheap, right?

Here is a word of caution. Make sure that you do not put too much of the egg yolk in the tank in one go because it could damage the water quality. You want to feed them an amount they can it in about 20 seconds or so.

For the best results, put a small amount of the egg yolk mixture into a thin glass pipe or some tubing. Lower it into tank where the fry are and release it just above them. This seems to work best for me.