When it come to feeding your Mbuna, only give them what they can devour in a minute or less. They will always appear to be hungry even when they have had plenty to eat. You only need to give them enough to sustain themselves. Anything more than that, you are really killing them with kindness. If they get hungry they can nibble on algae, it's good for them.

In the morning before I leave for work I feed my Mbuna Hikari Cichlid Complete. When I get home from work I feed them Hikari Cichlid Excel. And a little later in the evening I give them their frozen treats, one cube each of Hikari Bio-Pure Spirulina Brine Shrimp, Hikari Bio-Pure Mysis Shrimp and Hikari Bio-Pure Krill. They seem to love it, they really tear it up!

Mbuna are unique fish that require a special diet. The majority of Mbuna are herbivorous, some are omnivorous and some are even carnivorous. All Mbuna feed off of algae that grows on the rocks in their native habitat, even the carnivorous Mbuna. Algae makes up a very large portion of the Mbuna diet. Below is a refresher course on the terminology used to describe the Mbuna diet.

Herbivorous - An herbivore is a species that feeds predominately on plant life and other forms of vegetation a.k.a. a vegetarian. Herbivorous Mbuna still require small amounts of animal protein in their diet. About 50-55% of Mbuna are considered to be herbivorous.

Omnivorous - An omnivore is a species that feeds on both animal matter and plant matter. Omnivorous Mbuna require animal protein and vegetation in their diet, including algae. About 40-45% of Mbuna are considered to be omnivorous.

Carnivorous - A carnivore is a species that feeds predominately on animal matter. Carnivorous Mbuna still require small amounts of vegetation in their diet, including algae. About 5-10% of Mbuna are considered to be carnivorous.

Some web-sites are very misleading when they claim that all Mbuna are herbivorous, even other portions of that same web-site will often contradict the claim. It is true that more than half of Mbuna species are herbivorous, but they fail to recognize the great number of omnivore's and even the few carnivore's such as Cynotilapa afra.

Some other web-sites will tell you to feed your Mbuna Daphnia, Blood Worms and Tubifex Worms. That is insane! Unless you have a tank full of Carnivorous Mbuna such as the Cynotilapa afra. These foods are way to rich in animal proteins. Beside causing a good case of the dreaded "Malawi Bloat" some of these foods (Tubifex Worms) pose health concerns all of their own.

Now that you know the truth of the matter, we can move on to more important issues. As discussed before, algae is a mainstay of the Mbuna diet. Keeping your Aquarium free of algae may sound like a good idea to most people, but it's really counter productive to the Mbuna Aquarium.

One trick I learned while having a marine aquarium is to let the algae grow on the back of the aquarium. I have a 100 gallon acrylic aquarium with a black back, so it works well for me. When I do my water change and clean my aquarium, I clean the front and sides but do not clean the back wall at all.

This trick has two benefits, one you might not be aware of. First, it allows your Mbuna to eat fresh algae off of the back wall. This will cut down aggression from hunger and add color to your fish. Second, it is the final process of your biological filtration known as nitrification. In short, the algae uses nitrates in your tank for food and thus less nitrates.

Another trick is to have two pieces of drift wood that you can alternate between the aquarium and a five gallon bucket. Leave one piece in the aquarium and the other in the five gallon bucket in the sun. Let it grow algae for a week or two in the bucket then move it into your tank while the other piece grows algae. This will also allow your Mbuna to eat fresh algae.

If you are having bad luck growing fresh algae for your Mbuna or if you insisted on having a pleco in your Aquarium that seems to eat it all, you can supplement your Mbuna diet with algae wafers. Your best bet is to skip on the pleco and save the algae for your precious Mbuna.

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