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solid --> powder?


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I have no problems with my water params using powder food.  I grind up all my shrimp food into powder.  I usually put about a rice grain worth of shrimp food in on of those API test tube, add tank water, mix and feed using a pipette and spray a bit onto my feeding dish.  So far, its been keeping my 40b tank planaria free.

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I grind up my food as well. In one of my tanks I have a feeding tube which is attached to a dish below. I pust a tiny amount in the tube and it slowly drifts to the bottom of the dish. It keeps the powder from going everywhere. Most the time the shrimp are swimming up the tube to get first dibs at the good stuff. It's pretty entertaining. I may have to get more tubes. :P

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I have been using the Shirakura Ebi Dama in 'pad' form. Its very hard and takes HOURS to break down in the water which is nice. I tried breaking it up a little bit so that the shrimp dont fight over it but there is only so many pieces I can put in to keep everybody happy. 

So the other day I ordered GlasGarten Shrimp Dinner in granule form. This stuff is amazing. OK so basically it breaks down very fast in the water. I put 3 pellets in the feeding dish and within 20 minutes it had completely broken down into a little crumby bed of food that seemed just weighty enough to stay in the dish. Granted, if there is action in the feeding dish, some of this food may get thrown around a little bit, but that didnt happen as far as I could tell.

It allowed every shrimp to graze on the bed of food and everybody got a piece and there was no fighting. The shrimp actually loved the food. It drew a slightly bigger crowd than the Ebi Dama typically does and caused much  less fighting. 

 

This Shrimp Dinner by GlasGarten would be impossible to remove once added to the tank so making sure not to over feed is vital. I guess if you do notice that there is uneaten food in there the only way you could remove it is by using a pippet or something to suck it out. If your shrimp are boisterous it could send a bunch of it flying out of the feeding dish which is less than ideal but I am happy because this was the first time I could literally verify that the shrimp got a ton of actual visual food into their bellies. 

edit: just realised I kinda missed the whole point of Soothing's OP..   :unsure:  

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LOL  That is the original reason I like pellet though.  It stays in one spot, and I've come to favor teh quick breaking down into mush for the shrimp also.  But that stays in one spot, and everybody still has to fight to get into the area.

 

I'm not going to stop pellet because as a selective breeder I get to see most of my shrimp in a concentrated area when feeding it.  However I may limit feedings to once a week of pellet or so, so everyone has a chance at their own food without fighting for it.

 

The main thing I ma concerned about is fouling water with uneaten food.  I can weigh out how much a pellet weighs and use a measuring device to put that much into the water as a powder.  It just makes me wonder about how much each shrimp will be able to find food if not concentrated in a specific area, and how much will not be found and "rot."

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Thanks guys. :)

 

Tried it yesterday for the first time.  I have a small portable electric coffee grinder I used.  So far, so good.  I still plan on using pellet once a week or so for observing shrimp for selective and health purposes, but the other times it will be powder if I don't get hydra or param problems.

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