An appealing element of the aquarium hobby is that Tropical fish enjoy a balanced diet. This trait is very important to pay attention to, as they should be provided with the proper feeding requirements to ensure proper health. Read on to learn more about the best assorted cuisine for freshwater fish! Large Central & South American Cichlids are generally carnivorous and tend to eat very specific foods in the wild. This is not to say that the cichlids in your aquarium are not opportunistic and would mind going away from their favorite foods to have a meal. They will certainly be better off for it in an aquarium if they do eat a varied diet. All the little fish, crustaceans and bugs eat a varied diet before wild Oscars would eat them. So for most larger predatory American Cichlids, the best way to feed would be a good staple diet HIKARI mixed in with frozen krill, Jumbo bloodworms, plankton or silversides. Some people will also occasionally feed things like ghost shrimp or even self-cloning crayfish to bring out a little more of their hunting instincts. We dont recommend feeding live fish to cichlids as it is not necessary and improves your chances of getting a viral or bacterial infection going amongst your prized tank inhabitants. However, make sure you know your fish, as in recent years more unusual cichlids have been showing up and fish such as Basketmouths are planktivores and will require smaller foods than fish of similar size.
