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Powdered food that won't pollute the water?


beanbag

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Is there such a thing as a powdered food that you can spread all over the tank, but also won't go bad if it falls into a crack or below the substrate?

For example, the Glas Garten Shrimp Baby food, which is high in protein, does go bad and pollute the water.  (I think I killed off a bunch of shrimp due to uneaten pieces of it sitting around).  I also did a test where I just put it along with some tank water in a test tube and it went stinky and moldy within a few days.

Bacter AE seems to be ok, since the clumps are bacteria that go live.

Probably dried mulberry pellets should also be ok, since it should be safe to have plant matter decay?

How about bee pollen?  Or maybe the algae powders like Spirulina or chlorella?

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I haven't had a problem using the chi ebi WHEN I had baby shrimps but not got back to that stage yet (I am still using it a bit even with no  babbies) as we are approaching the end of winter! I'm not sure how you get clumps of it if it's a powder, I use a tooth pick (or similar) dipped about 5mm into tank water, quickly dip it into the powder, knock excess off and then swirl it round the tank.

Now I do have assassin snails in the tanks as well so they may get any bits that the shrimp don't!

I haven't used the glasgarten myself, though I had it on my 'to try' list, but as long as you don't use too much! It is more difficult though the larger the tank, as the shrimplets need to find the food and don't move far when very young.

I wanted to try bee pollen but haven't yet got back to that point yet and I haven't found it easy to get here? I would imagine the spiulina would be fine, I use that to feed daphnia when I have them, but again I use the same way of adding it to the tank.

There may be no need for additional food though if you have plenty of biofilm as that must be what they naturally eat so lots of leaves are a good platform for that and you are already using the bacter ae!

Simon

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Try bee pollen. I use that to feed baby shrimps in rotation with other powdered foods.

If you don't use it up, heck, it's good for humans to eat too! You can find many on ebay.

Spirulina is good too, as Simon mentioned.

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