Uhm, ideally what does one feed to Paracyps...

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...not like they seem too particular but was banging around on the web trying to find about hardscaping conducive to blessed events and noticed an emphasis on veggie-based diets. As that's very different than the flake, brine shrimp and occasional blackworms that mine have been getting, thought I better solicit a course correction.

 

[toddnbecka]

I feed everything from mbuna and peacocks to bn pleco's NLS Grow or Cichlid pellets as a staple diet, Ken's veggie flakes a few times weekly, and frozen bloodworms occaisonally. They all seem to thrive on that diet, I imagine Paracyp's would too...

 

[longstocking]

I like to feed them higher amounts of protein. But the one main thing I do is make sure the food is small. They seem to like smaller particles better. Decap Brine shrimp, flake... and a growth pellet is what I mostly feed.

 

[RIFT_LAKES_RULE]

I feed mine nls. One thing I've noticed is they don't like to pick it up off the bottom so I feed them very slowly allowing them to eat it as it falls. They like it, color and conditioning is excellent

 

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Mine are vacuum cleaners...

..so to speak. Now what do I do about hardscaping? Do they need a rock wall/labyrinth to get in the mood or is a preponderance of irregularly shaped softball-sized+ rocks grouped around generally sufficient? They have a 40 breeder to themselves except for a couple of E. kilesa. Should I make caves or something akin?

 

[longstocking]

Try slate leaned up against the back or side of the tank. It seems to work the best.

 

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Thanks.

Amazing what old roofing material is good for creating.

 

[toddnbecka]

I have a couple of resin "rock" formations left over from my group of Paracyp's. They, other cichlids, and even my Synodontis lucipinnis seemed to like them. They're hollow, so a few Synodontis hung out inside by day. I also used large, flat pieces of shale leaned vertically against the back glass to scape the tank.

 

[Tony]

My Paracyps (and Cyps for that matter) seem to like small crumbles or medium grade golden pearls. They'll try to eat 1mm NLS, but spit it out.

While I'm not typically a fan of leaning large rocks against the sides of tanks, I've done that on one end of my 75 with a piece of slate about 18" long or so. It makes a giant cave for which the Paracyps to chill.

Here's a video I took in November. I have P. nigripinnis, Cyp. leptosomoa Utinta, A. compressiceps "Gold Head" and a couple of female Callochromis. There's a good shot of the large cave around 1:42.

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