Will they get accustomed to new foods (that I have purchased at a pretty hefty cost) and eventually accept them? I bought some sinking sticks and a big container of "cichlid staple food" and some shrimp pellets. They don’t seem to keen on these – yet they go nuts over staple tropical fish flakes, spirulina pettets and flakes. Did I waste my money on these new foods or will they eventually take to them?
Oops! I spellid "cichlids" wrong – sorry.
They will eventually eat them. However donot feed too much protien(shrimp pellets) as most Malawi cichlids are herbivores(vegitarians). Mbuna only once a week or 2. Haps and peacocks can handle a little more protien. I use NLS(new life spectrum) as a main diet for all my cichlids. Its a very complete food, however not too cheap.
I keep s. american cichlids, and have had the same problems, but with a little persistance, they will probably accept the new food, especially if you don’t feed them for a day or so. Frozen foods, like bloodworms and brine shrimp are a big hit in my cichlid tanks, you almost cant go wrong with it.
It will just take time for them to get used to the new food, like most other fish, if they are fed a specific food for a extended period of time, they will just learn to eat that. This is the reason why it is recomended to feed your fish a variety of foods, such as live foods, flakes, pellets, etc etc.