# Foods For Breeding



## Cichlid1000 (Nov 3, 2008)

Hey guys,

I have been reading a bit of stuff on what's the best food to feed electric blues when they are breeding. Some sites have said you need a high protein diet (blood worms, high protein flake), thus also making them produce more eggs, and others have said that if you give them protein it's not good for them. If I see them displaying and doing their shimmy thing should I give them like 1 cube of frozen blood worms? They have been breeding fine although I just want to know if I can get them to have more eggs and if they will have a better chance of keeping them safe (more food/protein reserves).
Please give me some help on if this is right or not.


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## Lupin (Aug 1, 2006)

Mbunas certainly do not require excess proteins. Foods with crude protein not exceeding 38% is fine. I do not believe the number of eggs is influenced by the amount of protein intake. This is quite ironic to the fact they easily suffer bloat after consuming excessive proteins. Their digestive system is not designed to digest proteins quickly. So if the proteins accummulate inside their organs, they are at a risk of suffering bloat as they fail to expel their wastes.


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

I agree with Lupin -- I tend to favor foods with higher % of veggie matter and less fish or shrimp, regardless of the total protein analysis.
For instance, the Omega One super veggie kelp flakes (or pellets) are made with kelp and spirulina as the most common ingredients, followed by salmon and halibut, and are 33 % protein. 
The veggie flakes and sticks from kensfish.com are pure veggies (SEAWEED, SPIRULINA, CARROTS, SQUASH, SPINACH are the first 5 ingredients) - no fish or shrimp, 35% protein - and for mbuna I usually mix them about 3:1 or so with Ken's super color, earthworm, or plankton flake (or sticks) etc. Since I buy them in half pound bags, I mix up my own cans of food for the fishroom, and can make any rough mix I like :mrgreen:

in the wild, mbuna are consuming some inverts with the algae they graze on ("aufwuchs ") - so a little fish or shrimp protein is ok.


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## Cichlid1000 (Nov 3, 2008)

Thanks a lot guys


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