I also wonder, a lot of the flakes are vitamin enriched. Maybe the variety would be good.

Do shops where you are sell Daphnia? I know some European and Asian shops do. That puts them way ahead of American shops who haven't done that in 50 years. One could feed spirulina meal or HUFAs to them too (gut loading). I gather one could gut load brine shrimp about two hours before feeding.

That all sounds like a lot of work if one can just feed a variety of flake and frozen foods though.

Another thought: how much mineral is in your water? If it is really soft and low in GH, maybe the addition of a teaspoon for every couple gallons of cichlid salt (really mostly calcium, maganese and some trace elements) might be helpful.

I feel like I'm suggesting you spend your money willy-nilly and that is not the plan. If you have a local aquarium club not far from you, they might have access to some of these things less expensively.

I hope your finances are far better than mine were back in my college days (when we walked five miles to school, barefoot through snapping wolverines, uphill both ways, enduring tornados and withering heat and arctic cold, and under burning hail.) It was over a decade before I could bring myself to eat maccaroni and cheese or peanutbutter and jelly sandwitches. Too much surviving on them while catering to the purple snakeskin guppies on the dining room table and doing whatever grinds did. ;)