Feeding Malawi cichlids: mbuna and haps are not the same fish

Malawi is one lake, but it is not one diet. The fish sold as Malawi cichlids fall into two feeding groups that want opposite things, and most of the trouble people have keeping them starts with feeding both groups the same food.

Two groups, two diets

Mbuna are the rock dwellers. In the lake they spend the day rasping algae off rock, taking in the aufwuchs that grows there along with the small invertebrates living in it. Their gut is long, built to work through plant material slowly.

Peacocks and haps live away from the rocks, over sand and in open water. Aulonocara hover over sand and pick invertebrates out of it. Most haps are hunters, some of them on other fish. Their gut is short, built for protein.

Feed a mbuna the food a hap wants and you are asking a grazing digestive system to handle a diet it never evolved for. That is the most common feeding mistake in the hobby, and it is easy to avoid once you know which fish you are looking at.

Which is which

• Mbuna, mostly vegetarian: Pseudotropheus, Metriaclima, Labidochromis, Melanochromis, Cynotilapia, Labeotropheus, Tropheops, Iodotropheus.
• Peacocks and haps, mostly carnivorous: Aulonocara, Sciaenochromis, Nimbochromis, Placidochromis, Otopharynx, Copadichromis.

A few sit in between. Protomelas graze aufwuchs as well as taking invertebrates, and Copadichromis feed on zooplankton rather than fish. If your tank is mixed, feed to the more vegetarian side of the group. A peacock does fine on a moderate protein food. A mbuna on a high protein one is the combination that causes problems.

Protein, and why more is not better

Protein is the number everyone reads and the easiest one to get wrong. High protein does not mean high quality, it means suited to a particular fish.

For mbuna, look for something in the mid to high thirties with real plant content and a sensible fibre level. For peacocks and haps, the high forties and up is where they do best, and that is where you see the growth and the body depth people keep them for.

Also check whether you are comparing like for like. A dry food and a soft, moist food cannot be read off the pouch side by side, because the moist one carries water. Divide the protein figure by the dry matter and compare the results. A soft pellet at 20% protein with 25% moisture is close to 27% on a dry matter basis, which is a very different food from what the front of the pouch suggests.

Fibre and plant matter

Fibre is the part most Malawi foods skip. Mbuna are set up to process it, and a diet with almost none in it moves through them faster than it should. Spirulina, chlorella, seaweed, alfalfa and green vegetable matter all belong in a mbuna food, and a flake or pellet built around them will usually show a higher crude fibre figure than a hap food. That is a feature rather than a fault.

The same logic explains the long standing advice in the hobby to keep mbuna on a vegetable heavy diet and to avoid overfeeding them on rich, meaty foods. It is a husbandry habit built on what the fish actually are, and it holds up.

Colour, and where it comes from

Fish cannot make their own carotenoids. Every bit of red, orange and yellow in a Malawi cichlid comes out of the food. In the lake that means algae and the invertebrates that have eaten algae. In a tank it means astaxanthin and spirulina in the diet, fed consistently rather than in bursts.

Blues and whites work differently and are mostly structural, so they respond more to condition, water quality and confidence than to a colour food. If your blues look dull, look at nitrate and stocking before you look at the pouch.

Processing matters here too. High heat extrusion is hard on carotenoids and on vitamins. Low temperature processing keeps more of both in the food and therefore more of it in the fish.

Granule and pellet size

Malawi cichlids have small mouths relative to their body, and mbuna in particular are built to rasp rather than to swallow whole. A granule around 1.2 to 1.5mm suits most adult Malawi cichlids, and flake suits fry, juveniles and mixed groups where the smallest fish would otherwise miss out.

If you keep a mix of sizes, a smaller granule everyone can eat beats a larger one that only the dominant fish manage. Aggression at feeding time drops when the food is easy to take.

How much, and how often

• Adults: one or two small feeds a day.
• Growing juveniles: two or three small feeds a day.
• Fry: small amounts, four or five times a day.

Offer only what is cleared in about two minutes. Malawi tanks are usually heavily stocked, which means the margin between well fed and overfed is narrower than in most community tanks. Plenty of experienced keepers run one fast day a week for adult mbuna, which is a sensible habit rather than a rule.

Feeding and water changes are one system. A heavily stocked Malawi tank fed generously needs maintenance to match, and nitrate will tell you the truth about whether it is keeping up.

Where our Malawi range fits

We built the range around that split between the two groups rather than pretending one food covers the lake.

• Premium Malawi Formula is the everyday granule for mixed Malawi tanks at 37% protein and 6% fat, with spirulina and algae in the mix and 70mg per kg of astaxanthin. Granule size is 1.2 to 1.5mm.
• Malawi Pro Colour is the high protein option at 52% protein and 8% fat, built on krill and squid meal with 85mg per kg of astaxanthin. It suits peacocks and haps, and it is the one to reach for when you are growing fish on or conditioning them.
• Premium Malawi Flake is 38% protein with 4% crude fibre, built on seaweed, chlorella, spirulina, alfalfa and green pea. The fibre level and the plant base make it a good fit for mbuna, and flake reaches the smaller fish in a mixed group.
• Supreme Green Soft Pellet is the herbivore food, a soft pellet built on seven seaweed species and phytoplankton with spirulina and mineral clay. At 20% protein and 25% moisture it is around 27% on a dry matter basis, which is deliberate. It is made for fish that graze.

You can see the whole range on the Malawi cichlid food page.

The short version

• Work out whether you are keeping mbuna or peacocks and haps. It changes the food.
• Mbuna want moderate protein with real plant matter and fibre.
• Peacocks and haps want high protein.
• Mixed tank? Feed towards the vegetarian side.
• Colour comes from the food, so feed astaxanthin and spirulina consistently.
• Small feeds, cleared in two minutes, with maintenance to match.

Get the group right and the food right, and Malawi cichlids are about as rewarding as freshwater fish get.

Keeping something else? Read what to feed discus.