Jump to content

Shrimp Food


alycat198

Recommended Posts

Hi @alycat198! I use a feeding dish for my shrimp tanks ever since I noticed planaria (parasite that develops in tanks due to overfeeding that can harm and kill shrimps). I feed everyday and alternate between foods. I use Shrimp King Mineral, Protein and Complete, which are all pellets, Glassgarten products, Bacter AE, Shrimp Baby and Shrimp Fit, which are powder food, and as a treat I'll give them frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp once every other week and spinach once every other week. I feed a lot of different foods because my main goal is maximum breeding, but you should be more than fine with a pellet or solid food and a powdered food. Hope that helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a dish to help keep the mess down.  I feed Snowflake Pellets, Barley Pellets (that I buy in bulk), a powdered food (Shrimp Dust Complete) that I developed myself, freshly boiled or dehydrated leaves (Maple, Mulberry, Spinach, Kale, Dandelion), a variety of freshly boiled veggies & even some insect/animal based protein pellets once in a while.  

If you'd like to try out the Snowflake or Barley, let me know.  They are great because they are a leave-in/grazing food that won't foul your tank water.  Powdered food is great for babies because it spreads all throughout the tank.  And as with most pets, having a good variety of food is one of they keys to good health!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good thread! I am also interested to hear what people are feeding. I got fluval bug bite shrimp formula because a local store had them. I was planning to order more/better food online as well. So, looking for advice on the best things to feed. I’ve currently got blue neos and would like to be sure I am feeding them something that helps to maintain/strengthen their blue color. After I’ve shown I can keep these successfully, I also plan to get some red pintos. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wyzazz is one of the OG members on this forum so I hold his advice in high regards. Honestly though, there's so many different types of shrimp food in the market that it can be easy to get overwhelmed and spend a bunch of money on different foods (I know because I did this when I first got into the hobby lol), when in reality shrimp don't necessarily need crazy expensive food or a 5 course meal everyday to successfully thrive and breed. I believe Lucas from LRB aquatics feeds all of his fish and shrimp Tetra Colored Granules and he's won numerous shrimp awards for his neocaridina. When you get into the caridina species however, especially the more expensive and rarer ones, it might be recommended to get more shrimp-specific foods since they're a little genetically weaker from the inbreeding to get the beautiful colors, but I think that's a topic for another thread. I like to choose my foods based on brands/companies that either I've had success with, or heard of people having success with, which is why the majority of my processed foods are from 2 companies (Shrimp King and Glassgarten).

 

On a side note, I also feed snowflake food and my shrimp love them. As wyzazz stated, they don't foul the water so they make a perfect vacation food and they flake apart in the water so each shrimp can take a piece and swim away, which can help to reduce food aggression and let the little shrimps get some of the food. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm new to the hobby too and shrimp food is expensive.  I did decide to buy a few and test them out and this is what currently use: GG mineral, dinner, bacter ae, snowflake, SK complete, spinach, frozen bloodworms.

 

This is what i notice from my shrimps, of course yours may differ.

BB very picky

Fancy Tigers, Pinto not as picky

 

foods that my shrimp like: spinach, bloodworms, snowflake, bacter ae

foods that is okay: complete

foods that they will eat but are not excited for: mineral, dinner (usually feed them after day off) 

 

Sundays is a no feed day, Mondays are usually mineral, Wednesday protein and the rest is mixed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also am buying some of the recommended foods from above, thanks!

 

I know that for my animals there are color enhancing foods, especially when trying to have brilliant red and oranges. Is this type of thing useful for shrimp? Would it be useful in any way, for example, to feed my blue shrimp blueberry skins or other foods high in blue pigments? Will this help them show their best colors, or just a waste of time? 

I know I can also cull the least desirable to increase the overall color quality over time (while being careful not to cull all the males) but was just wondering how Important feeding is to display of colors. 

 

Thanks. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, T0adman said:

I also am buying some of the recommended foods from above, thanks!

 

I know that for my animals there are color enhancing foods, especially when trying to have brilliant red and oranges. Is this type of thing useful for shrimp? Would it be useful in any way, for example, to feed my blue shrimp blueberry skins or other foods high in blue pigments? Will this help them show their best colors, or just a waste of time? 

I know I can also cull the least desirable to increase the overall color quality over time (while being careful not to cull all the males) but was just wondering how Important feeding is to display of colors. 

 

Thanks. 

That's an interesting thought about feeding something like blueberry skins, but I'm not sure that the blue pigment in food will directly translate to increasing blue pigment in your shrimp. I can't speak about how effective color-enhancing foods are to shrimp because I've never used them, but if you're on a budget or want to try to save money I'd focus on getting higher quality essential foods that provide nutrients such as protein and minerals over a food that enhances the color. My shrimps have surprised me because months after getting them and having babies they still continue to color up and look even nicer than they did just a few weeks ago.

 

I think good water quality, adequate hiding places so they feel safe, and good food are the most important factors in bringing out their color. If you're thinking of a display tank and want to make your shrimp pop as much as possible I'd think color-enhancing foods would be good for that (again, I've never tried them so I don't want to recommend or discourage it too much), but if you're planning to sell your shrimp I would highly discourage feeding color-enhancing foods as that can give a false sense of your product when selling them. To clarify, if someone sees pictures of your really colorful shrimps and decides to buy them but doesn't feed color-enhancing foods, the shrimp you sell them will lose color over time and that might upset the customer, especially if they find out you used color-enhancing foods. Also, just like you stated about culling it can kind of be misleading for you as well because all your shrimp might look amazing, which might cause you to leave shrimps with poor genetics because they look nicer than they normally would. By not enhancing their color you can see the shrimp as they truly are in your tank and make more accurate decisions on which shrimp should be culled, and which should remain in the population to pass on their genes. But it's your hobby and your money so if you like the idea of bringing out the best colors in your shrimp I'd say go for it. Ultimately, you should do what you want to do and what makes you excited about this hobby!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, JSak, all very valid concerns and things to keep in mind. I just wasn’t even sure color enhancing foods are effective.

 At this point I’m still very new and just having fun with my shrimp. I had one test shrimp for a couple weeks and got my 15 shrimp about a week ago. They are all healthy and happy and I think they have a good setup. (Pretty sure you saw it in my setup thread, although I should send new pics with the shrimp in it). Of course the shrimp I got have a range of colors and some are the brilliant blue that the seller showed in the picture and others are the more translucent blue color of blue jellies, which I don’t enjoy nearly as much. I’m still hoping that they all color up more as they grow and settle in to the tank more. The light in the tank will also become less harsh as the plants grow in and I get some better floating plants. Anyway, I am definitely going to put healthy food as the priority, but might throw them a blueberry skin to see if they like it. 

 

Heres my setup:

2B47929B-3F22-47BA-8D78-5B9704B11006.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No problem! Bummer about the different range of colors of your shrimp ☹️that's one of the tell-tale signs for me of a good source for shrimp or not. If the seller puts up multiple pictures of their colony and doesn't just focus on 1 or 2 shrimp then I can get a sense of how the shrimp I buy will look. I don't think it's as common now, but before sellers would showcase the nicest shrimp in their stock to encourage people to buy them. That being said, if they came from the same colony they should share similar genetics so with time and breeding you should have babies that have the deeper blue color. Most of the time when I'm looking for shrimp if there's a seller that I know has a high quality colony, I'll see if they sell culls or lower grade shrimp from that colony because 1) since they're coming from the colony they'll have the same genetics as the high quality ones, and 2) they're usually much cheaper than buying the high quality ones to start with. It requires more time to have to breed them and cull out the babies, but I think that's part of the fun of shrimp keeping imo. 

 

Awesome! Keep me updated on that blueberry trick. The fun of this hobby is that it's still relatively new and there's a lot of things we don't know about shrimp keeping, which makes it fun to experiment (to a certain extent). For me, I'm most excited about mixing different shrimps together and seeing if I can get any cool or unique patterns out of them, and then trying to select for those colors/patterns to eventually produce a stable line. Good luck! Hope it all works out 👍

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, yeah. While I’m slightly disappointed in the color variation, I think the seller is good. Seems to have good reviews on aquabid and his website. I don’t want to say anything negative since I’m still new and they could very well all color up nicely once settled in and fully grown. The pics were of the whole colony, so they should all be decent. And like you say, they should share genetics either way. I’m sure part of it is just variation within a colony, lighting and such. As you say, culling to keep improving the color will also be fun. I do need to learn to sex the shrimp so I can be careful not to cull too many males. I hear they are less colorful than females in the neos

I am also looking forward to expanding my shrimp keeping so I can start experimenting with crosses and such as you say. It sounds like a lot of fun. I’m trying not to jump in too quickly, though, as I have a tendency to get a bit too excited and overdo things ;)

i am planning to get some red pintos once I’m confident in my skills. The same seller has those, so we’ll see how nice these blues are before I buy from him again. 

 

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like you're being patient and taking the time to do your research, which can only help your chances of success when you finally make the leap to caridina. I think you're on the right path and you have the right mindset with shrimp keeping so I have no doubt you'll have success! Just remember not to get too frustrated if anything happens (in my experience it's inevitable that something will eventually go wrong even if you do everything right especially when dealing with live animals). I try to remember that you tend to learn more from your mistakes than your successes, so based on my recent success I'm sure that tells you something about all the mistakes I had to go through to get to where I am now 😂 Keep it up and most importantly have fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, I got the glasgarten bacter ae, which I have been dosing very carefully. I read that even the suggested amount can be dangerous in a tank without airarion, which mine doesn’t have. So, I figured it’s better to be cautious, especially since I don’t have any shrimplets yet. 

 

I also got the shrimp king variety pack since you guys seemed to recommend the brand. I found that they seem to love everything except the 5 leaf mix, which they completely ignore. Not even the snails want to eat it. It’s been there 2 days, so I guess I’ll just remove it and probably throw the rest away. I’ll probably order full size packs of the rest. Sounds like a mix of the mineral, protein, complete and snowflakes will be a healthy balanced diet with some boiled mulberry leaves mixed in once spring comes. 

 

I didn’t try any blueberry skins yet, but think it’ll be a good excuse for my wife to make some muffins this weekend. 

 

Anyway, everything seems to be going well. I’m finding it hard not to set up a new tank right away to get some red pintos. I’m already using Rodi and have fluval stratum as a substrate, how hard can they be? I can even make the excuse that the blue neos would probably be happier in a tank with fluorite over the stratum so they can have a ph above 7. ;)

 

Thanks again for all the advice 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, typo. Meant aeration. I don’t have an air pump with air stone or under gravel filter or anything. I just have my tiny powerhead, which works fine. But, I read somewhere that without aeration the bacter ae can create enough bacteria to use up too much oxygen and kill your shrimp. Not sure how likely that is but I’m playing it safe. 

 

Also, be careful because the scoop is for 120L, which is 30g. Not sure why they make the scoop so big, how many people have 30g shrimp tanks?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The scoop that comes with Bacter AE as well as the feeding recommendation is absurd. I can't stress this enough. About 10% of a scoop feeds my two 125 gallon tanks and 4 20 gallon tanks. I feed my 10 gallon tanks Bacter  AE off of a toothpick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info!! I’ve only fed twice since purchasing it last week, so I’m hoping I didn’t create a problem. Everyone looks happy. I’ll feed it again on Monday, and use way less! I only did like a quarter of the scoop, but I have a 10gallon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is the thing with Bacter AE.  It's full of all kinds of good stuff, but it's also got a gram negative bacteria strain in there that loves to scavenge oxygen.  If you put too much in a tank without sufficient aeration/oxygen exchange, that gram negative bacteria will reproduce and consume most of the O2 in your tank essentially suffocating the inhabitants.  

IMHO there are way better alternatives out there, that are way less risky.  I have a 90% full 70g container if anyone is interested I'll sell it for $15 shipped.  
 

One of my current favorites is Dead Shrimp Powder - Po Nguyen can hook you up with that, if anyone wants his info PM me.  
Aqualex Enzyme/SL Aqua Magic Powder - This seems to be hard to get right now

Lowkeys Bacteria Bacter and Double Speed

I've also got a Bacteria/Enzyme granule that is very similar to Bacteria Bacter that has given me great results for the past few years.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wyzazz, could you elaborate? Im interested, but don’t want to keep buying more foods I don’t understand ;)

My understanding is that the bacteria is the beneficial food because it increases the biofilm. My shrimp do seem to love it and will start grazing as soon as I feed it, sometimes even ignoring food pellets in preference for the bacter ae. Of course the fact that they seem to be eating it right away means that there has to be something else in there that they like since obviously the bacteria wouldn’t be creating a biofilm immediately. I’ve also wondered about a powder gunning up the filter and thought maybe I should turn it off for a minute when I add it so it can settle out instead of being filtered out (my shrimp can’t access my filter media). 

I am wondering, though, if my shrimp are showing better blue colors since I’ve been feeding it. I was a bit disappointed that most weren’t as brilliant blue as the pics when I bought them and maybe even seemed to be fading a bit. But, now that I’m feeding bacter ae, I feel like their colors are improving. I guess I did get it the same time as the shrimp king foods, so maybe it’s just the variety of quality foods. Is this possible, or all in my mind? If so, what parts of the food might be helping?

 

Anyway, in positive news, my first shrimp is berried. Unfortunately, it’s one of the lighter ones. I’m trying to decide if a cull heavily now before they begin having babies, wait and cull the larger population later, or even possibly just pull out the few best for a different tank. I’m not sure how much concern I need to have about genetic diversity or inbreeding, or even how closely the pheonotype represents the genotype. Will the brighter parents consistently produce brighter offspring, or will all shrimp from my colony have a range of colors that needs to be improved slowly over time through repetitive culling. Guess this is a better topic for the selective breeding section, but I also don’t want to be annoying with too many posts. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@T0adman - Elaborate how?  BacterAE isn't worth the risk IMHO, it's too easy to overdose.  Having a bacteria in the mix that loves to scavenge O2 isn't a great move IMHO, so I no longer use the stuff.  As I mentioned above, it's full of all kinds of great stuff, but the good doesn't outweigh the bad for me.  

As for feeding powders, I feed powdered foods 2-3X per week and run HMF's.  I have to pull the HMF's and squeeze them out every 3-6moz depending on the tank. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What are the good things in the bacter ae. What other foods provide them? Do the other bacteria foods you mentioned lack O2 loving bacteria? Do they have other bacteria, or no live bacteria? Do they promote biofilm, or is that what the bacteria does? Is it necessary or do established tanks have enough biofilm anyway?

What should I be looking for in other powdered foods? Do these replace the need for bio film enchancers?

Which specifically are best, and where can I buy them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With bacteria type foods I've always heard and tried to follow the rule of picking one and sticking with it. They dont tell you exactly what strains are in there and mixing can cause issues. That said I can't prove and issues caused by it. I'm having my best baby survival so far using magic powder. Hopefully it's still available. I used a powder food from wyazzaz too but ended up adding agar agar and making it into a frozen food they like. The magic powder is more of a food with some bacteria than say bacter AE that's more of a bacteria only product. That said the reason so.many of us use sponge filters and HMF is they provide great grazing as well as filtering. When I feed powdered foods the shrimp first pick it off the ground then an hour later most are on the sponge cleaning that.

 

Bacter ae is the only food I'm aware of.that causes the low O2 problem so easily.

 

Look for foods people are using that are having success and you see pop up. When I went to a local breeders house I saw a stack of 15+ magic powder bottles and shrimp.mineral uptake, and the shrimp nature line. I alternate between the mineral uptake and magic powder now. Works great that said other things could have worked too.

Any powdered food will help build biofilm. It's just bacteria and microorganisms when they get food they grow.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What are the good things in the bacter ae. - There are multiple Lactobacillus and other bacterial strains in Bacter AE, these help to contribute to biofilm growth in a tank.  Bacillus Subtilis is the main culprit in the O2 scavenging.  Lacto does the same to an extent, but not as much as Subtilis. The fact that it's a powder makes it available to the entire tank, this is a huge benefit IMHO and why I developed a "complete" powdered food to feed to my tanks.

 

What other foods provide them? - Other Biofilm Building foods that are commercially available are Pure Nordic Nutridust, SL Aqua Magic Powder/Aqualex Enzyme, Dead Shrimp Powder (if you want this I can pass along Po's information), Lowkeys Double Speed and Bacteria Bacter.  Most of these can be found via a quick google search.

 

Do the other bacteria foods you mentioned lack O2 loving bacteria?  - They do, which makes them safer overall.

 

Do they have other bacteria, or no live bacteria?  - Bacteria isn't really live, it's just inactive or in stasis.  It becomes active under the right conditions and begins replicating.  Most of these foods contain some sort of inactive bacteria or enzymes that promote biofilm growth in your tanks.  

 

Do they promote biofilm, or is that what the bacteria does? - Yes and Yes.  Anything in powder form will be consumable by the bacteria in your tank, so it promotes biofilm in that way even if it doesn't contain bacteria.

 

Is it necessary or do established tanks have enough biofilm anyway? - It's not necessary, but can certainly help if a tank has a large population of shrimp or your want to boost baby survival.  Every tank is a separate ecosystem and will act differently, so one established tank may be completely different than the one next to it.

 

What should I be looking for in other powdered foods? - I like to look at reviews and see what experienced breeders utilize.  I did this a lot when I first started and even more so when I started making my own food.  I wanted a "complete" food, so I have everything from Calcium sources, to betaglucans, enzymes, bacteria strains & yeast to animal and plant based proteins.  It really depends on what you think you're lacking in a tank.  If your shrimp are having trouble molting and your parameters are good, then you may want to consider something with lower protein (especially animal/insect) and higher concentrations of calcium.  

 

Do these replace the need for bio film enchancers? - It really depends.  When I cycle a tank I use a Barley and Enzyme Bag that promotes a ton of biofilm growth.  It ages a tank very quickly and negates need for tons of additional time and other enhancers.  Again, none of this stuff is necessary...   ...it just allows you to create a suitable environment more quickly.  

 

Which specifically are best, and where can I buy them? - See the list above.  If you would like to try out anything I have, feel free to shoot me a message.  If you are looking specifically for a bacterial supplement, Dead Shrimp Powder is one of the best I've used and is readily available.  SL Aqua/Aqualex has been going through some radical changes and has been really hard to come by, while I really loved their products I'll no longer support their brand due to some of the business decisions they made.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...