Leaderboard

Today I saw a small / medium size shrimp getting rapidly eaten up, so that guy definitely went before his time. Yes, the shrimp rush the food, so maybe I do need to feed more. I've read that you should feed enough so that the shrimp finish the food after a certain amount of time. The problem is that I've also seen advice ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hrs. Just looked at my Shrimp King Complete bottle and it said "5mm stick per 20 shrimp". And I think there's around 80 in this little 5 gallon tank. It's overpopulated. On the other hand, I keep reading about how you shouldn't overfeed shrimp and that they can "live off the biofilm".

There is no "right" answer when it comes to amount of food to feed your shrimp. If you are seeing your shrimp cannibalise other shrimp, it's time to feed them some meat. And I don't mean beef, or chicken or pork. Feed them more frozen bloodworms, or raw fish pieces, or pieces of raw prawns. The shrimp can eat biofilm, but when you have 80+ in a 5gallon, the biofilm is long gone after a week. The idea behind "don't over feed your shrimp" is not for the shrimp's benefit, it is to avoid fouling the water and killing the shrimp in it. This very much applies to processed foods only. But if you feed a variety of foods, you can have many types of food in the tank at the same time. Let me give you an example of what is in my tank. I have some Snow flakes (soy bean husks) floating around the bottom. I also have a nasturtium flower in the tank at the moment. I feed the shrimp every 2-3 days with processed foods from Shrimp King or Algae Wafers or my own homemade foods. And there is a couple of Indian Almond Catappa leaves on the substrate as well. My shrimp will eat the old Catappa leaves, the graze on the Snow Flakes, and devour the nasturtium flower. These are in the tank all the time so they are never hungry. I supplement with processed foods, and once every week they get frozen bloodworms or a small piece of raw prawn or fish, if that so happens to be on the humans menu that week. The trick is vary their diet and have foods that can be left in the tank for long periods without it fouling the water.

It's always fun getting a new or different shrimp, but it probably means it hasn't come from pure genes so it may through out more different types, which is fine unless you want a single type tank! She has eggs in photo 2 so it will be interesting to see what others you get? It actually looks nearer a varient of lower quality blue steel than blue bolt and these are not an original pure taiwan bee, but taitibee, so crossbred, not pure gene. When you buy shrimp you won't know how old they are and once full size they will probably only live a year at best. Do the shrimp rush to the food when you add it, if so maybe you need to feed a little more. If they don't rush to the food thn they must be finding enough in the tank, I assume? As the population grows they will need more feeding but they only eat dead shrimp or molts, they don't kill others. Shrimp that have been born and only lived in the tank should do better than newly added shrimps from somewhere else! As you managed to trace the clear headed one to a normal lifespan, that is a good sign and should offer some reassurance, together with getting good numbers of babies.