Review: Hikari Cichlid Gold Fish Food

I bought a bag of Cichlid Gold at the time I picked up my assortment of African Cichilds at the pet store. I figured they would be better than flake food for keeping the tank clean and a little color enhancer couldn't be bad. The color enhancers are basically carotene and the food also contains a high level of stabilized vitamin C to strengthen resistance to disease and stress.

Cichlids, who always appear to be on the edge of starvation the way they greedily attack food, had no problem finding these floating pellets at the top of the tank. The only problem was the size of the pellets. My one and a half inch fish tried their best to gulp down this food but mostly they could only nibble at it and play a sort of "pellet volleyball" in which on fish would manage to get the pellet underwater only to lose it and have it fly back up to the top of the tank. Once the pellet softened up a bit, they were able to swallow a pellet and then spit out about half of it. It kind of made a mess. When they are older no doubt they will be able to manage a pellet in one bite.

My African Cichlids love this love this product but it should be used with caution. In the wild, herbivorous fish such as African Cichlids who sustain themselves in the wild mostly on plant material such as algae that grows on rocks. Hikari Cichlid Gold's main ingredients are white fish meal, wheat flour, wheat-germ meal, brewer's yeast, soybean meal, shrimp meal and alfalfa meal. Not much algae or spirula here! So maybe this food is a staple for carnivorous cichlids and not herbivorous cichlids.

While herbivorous fish do need some "meat" in their diet, and carnivorous fish need some vegetable matter in theirs. These should be seen as supplements however, and not as the main staple of their diet.

For herbivorous fish, spirulina can make up 60% to 70% of the fishes diets with some other foods as an occasional treat. African Cichlids in particular can contract the fatal "Malawi Bloat" in which their digestive tract becomes blocked and the blow up like a pine cone and eventually die. Diets high in algae and low in fat as well as frequent water changes and not overfeeding can keep these fish "regular" and healthy. Also, be aware that pellet foods contain air that will be swallowed and could also lead to digestion problems especially in the herbivorous African cichlids.

Cichlids are one of the most adaptive species of fish on the planet and each has specialized on a feeding method that works where they live so its important to research what type of cichlid you have. They are found all over the world with heavy concentrations in Africa and South America. They can be:

Carnivorous: These fish prey on other fish, especially the fry of other species.

Herbivorous: These fish are grazers and subsist by scraping algae off of rocks.

Omnivorous: These fish have a variety in their diet, eating both plant matter, invertebrates, and small fish.

Micro-predators: These fish eat small invertebrates such as artemia and plankton.

So its important that you know what you have so you can match the fish with its proper food requirements.

Spirulina (a type of algae) is commonly sold in health food stores for human dietary supplementation because of its outstanding nutritional quality. It contains high levels of easily absorbed anti-oxidants, including chlorophyll, beta-carotene, and phycocyanin. In addition, it also has high levels of iron, vitamin B-12 and chromium (useful for metabolizing sugars). Furthermore, Spirulina is 65-70% protein. Consequently, you do not have to feed your fish lots of frozen foods or fish meal in an effort to get them their protein.

Hikari Cichlid Gold has a higher protein (40%) content then say Super Veggie Kelp Flakes which has more kelp and spirulina algae content and only has 33% protein. Keep the Hikari Cichlid Gold for your carnivorous or omnivorous cichlids or as an occasional treat for your herbivorous cichlids.

Ingredients
White fish meal, wheat flour, wheat-germ meal, brewers' dried yeast, soybean meal, shrimp meal, dehydrated alfalfa meal, carotene, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, vitamin B12 supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, choline chloride, D activated animal sterol, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite, inositol, para-aminobenzoic acid, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, salt, ferrous chloride, copper suflate, cobalt sulfate.