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From this.... To this.... To this...

Hi All, Posting after a long time - Presenting One native shrimp of India - Caridina Sp. White Backed. Some of us call it as Indian Bee also. The shrimp generally comes in 2 color - orange-mud color and also blue color. And some times the rare black ones also been caught, but they are really rare. I have separated the orange and blue and will breed them separately to see what is the off-spring color I am getting. Providing 2 images as of now, and the images are from fb so some sharpness already have been lost -

looks great dude really filled in the little gaps! should be a stunner when it grows out!

Tank update, received the Blyxa Japonica and Vallisneria today, all planted in, should look good once it grows out a little.

Apologies Basri!! It has been that kind of crazy year. Picking up sump and last two tanks on Saturday for Rack 2.0, so will be posting a new thread soon. i may have to go through the phone and find some nice shrimp images to share. They have been prolific this year. Thankfully!!

After reading this thread with great interest and needing some new shrimp food, I thought that I'd give this recipe a go. Thanks to Jason for the recipe and advice. Made my first batch today with Chlorella, Spirulina, Kale, Bee pollen and Astaxanthin. Pictures below taken at 1 minute and 4 minutes after being in the tank. Can't even see the food lol

OK, you asked for it, you got it...... Forgive the camera/skill.... Made a fresh batch using the same recipe I listed above. Only this time I pureed the dry ingredients in with the shrimp and 4oz of water (didnt have pulverize the bee pollen this way, it just disolved). Wound up with a thick syrup, about the consistency of chocolate syrup, this way. I then blended the cooked agar solution into it and spread it out on the cookie sheet. After the gel set, about 10 minutes, I scored it with the Onion Holder. Press down somewhat firm and it cuts about 90% and 100% through, but the scored pieces break easily once frozen. This was right after putting it in, the frenzy got more intense with each passing minute. The frenzy continues:

Thanks to jay's inspiration I have been making "Shrimp Kandy Feast" too with great results, although I add raw shrimp (including shell) to mine. 12oz water 1 teaspoon agar agar 1 Tablespoon Chlorella 1 Tablespoon Spirulina (mainly because I already have a bunch of it and want to use it up) 1 teaspoon Astaxanthin, 1 teaspoon powdered Bee Pollen. 4 medium shrimp with shell and tails (prefer whole shrimp with heads if available) Method: I let the agar soak in 8oz of water while I prepare the other stuff. I puree the shrimp in a food processor with 4oz of water Mix all dry ingredients together Cook the agar solution and let it cool a few minutes Add the shrimp puree, then the dry stuff and mix. I use mini ice cube trays when I make a similar agar based food for my cichlids, but I didn’t like the big chunks for the shrimps. So I line a large cookie baking sheet with tin foil, and then pour the mixture onto it, spreading it to form a thin layer about 3-4mm thick. I let this set at room temp, only takes about 15 minutes or less, then I use an "Onion Holder (slicer)" to make nice long narrow strips by dragging it across the gel to score/slice it. Then I let it freeze and break the long thin strips into shorter pieces and put it in a baggie in the freezer. The results is long thin narrow strips that allow more shrimp to swarm on it at once because of the large surface area.

Nice recipe jayc, thanks for the point to this thread. I have been using a similar process with agar-agar for years for my cichlid food. As mentioned in the other thread I am going to readjust my recipe based on your suggestions to come up with a shrimp version. I already have the agar, spirulina, and Astaxanthin, and I just ordered the Chlorella and Bee Pollen. BTW, here in the US most of the Chlorella is marketed as "cracked cell" or "whole cell", does this make any difference to the shrimp? The blurbs "say" that humans dont get all the goody out of it unless the cells are cracked, it just passes through us. I seldom trust health food advertising though, a whole lot of snake oil being pushed. In my fish recipes I always added fresh garlic as an attractant and alleged digestive aide, is garlic of any benefit to shrimp? A note about agar. it comes in powder or flake form. I have found I get much more consistent results if I let it soak in room temp water prior to cooking it. About 5 minutes for the powder form, but I actually prefer the flakes and they need about a 15 minute soak. I read about this on a culinary forum somewhere, pretty SOP for the chefs to do this. Before doing this I had an occasional batch that just wouldn’t gel for some reason, since doing this it has never failed me since. Another thing the cooking pros will tell you do is bring your ingredients up to a hot temperature before combining them in the agar solution. Probably doesn’t matter with the powders being used here, but with the wet bulky ingredients like raw shrimp and fresh veggies it made a huge difference. I also found that making bigger batches suited me. So I will put the mix in mini ice cube trays, and then freeze them. Once frozen, pop the little ice cubes out and stick them in a baggie in the freezer. Extends the shelf life to about 6 months. I soak the cubes in a shot glass of water till they thaw before throwing them in the tank.

All right before you guys hijack this thread any further, I am naming this food. Shrimp Kandy Feast. Shrimp ... well that's self explanatory. It's for shrimp. Agar is associated to desserts or sweets. Candy is sweet, and yummy. Feast cause it invokes images of a huge crowd eating. Why kandy with a 'K' ? Well just for it's origins ... check out the name's acronym

The story behind it... I have long known the benefits of Chlorella for shrimp. So I bought 250gm of Chlorella powder from Squiggle on Dec 3 last year. Up until now I have been trying to figure out the best way of feeding Chlorella powder to the shrimp. If I sprinkled it in the water it would literally turn the tank green like it was algae infested, not a good look and not the best way of feeding. So up till this weekend I have been digging into ways to feeding Chlorella, and I drew on a few inspirations - Fishmosy's biofilm alternative http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/index.php/topic/7770-biofilm-alternative/ And Repashy Gel premixes. If I could get the Chlorella powder in a gel like substance for the shrimp like what fishmosy did with Spirulina, it would be my goal. So the question was what to use to hold the Chlorella powder. Then I drew on the idea of the repashy gel. Jelly was what it looked like to me. But Jelly and gelatin is no good for shrimp. Gelatin is animal based. So the next best option was ... AGAR AGAR !!! The more research I did on agar agar, the more convinced I was that this was the perfect vessel to hold all kinds of Shrimpy foods that we can feed our beloved pets. Agar is a gelling agent extracted from red algae (perfect). It's easy to work with (awesome). It's easy to find and it's cheap (perfect, kaching). It's all organic (you beaut). Ingredients: 1 teaspoon of agar agar powder (2gm). 350ml water. Chlorella powder 3 teaspoons. Bee Pollen 1 teaspoon. You can find agar agar powder in most Asian supermarkets, some health food shops, maybe even coles and woolies. Please buy only agar that has no other additives like sugar, flavouring, or colouring. Method: Add water and agar agar powder into a pot, and bring to a low boil. Stir constantly or the agar with stick to the pot. Keep heat low to med. Heat until all sign of the agar powder is dissolved (approx 5 minutes on low-med heat). Pour into a shallow and flat container (for ease of cutting later) Let it cool for 4-5 minutes. Crush the bee pollen in a mortar & pestle. Then sprinkle in the Chlorella powder and Bee Pollen into the container. The agar would not have set yet. Use a utensil of your choice to stir in the Chlorella powder and Bee Pollen, taking care to smooth out any lumps of Chlorella powder and Bee Pollen. Let it set in the fridge for 30 minutes. Cut a small square of the Chlorella powder and Bee Pollen Agar, and drop in the tank. Sit back and watch the shrimp swarm it. Note: does not pollute the tank either. I have since learnt that you can get a Spirulina, Chlorella, and Wheatgrass supergreen powder mix at health food shops. A small bottle is all that's needed ( I think it was about $16-$18). You could use this and create a really Super green food with Bee Pollen. Otherwise you can shout out to Squiggle for some. He will charge you appropriately. The original plan was to include Astaxanthin, but I could not find powder that was economical enough. But there is SOOOOOO much nutrition in Chlorella powder and Bee Pollen alone that this exercise was worth it. And seeing how much the shrimp are enjoying it ... priceless. If I can get pics, I'll post it tomorrow. Hope you have a go at it yourself. Version 2 will include Astaxanthin as the colour enhancer. So I am still looking for affordable astaxanthin powder. Cheers.