Feeding Platform vs How To Remove Leftover Food

[cdaJiv]

I have 3 Nano shrimp tanks all of which are 10 gallons or smaller. I use Fluval Shrimp & Plant Stratum in all of my shrimp tanks and I am happy with that and would like to stay with it. One problem I do have is whatever it is feeding time (actually after feeding time). As you all probably already know Fluval Stratum is not very heavy and doesn’t pack well at the bottom of your tank normally I would say this is a good thing but in this case it can get pretty annoying when it comes time to plant or feed.

 

I feed with Shrimp King products like Complete & Protein Which are great I love how they expand at the bottom of the tank and my shrimp seem to love it too.

 

Some people say to remove the excess food after 6 hours others say 24 hours and that is where my question comes in, how do you guys do it??

 

Every time I feed my shrimp food seems to get into the Stratum substrate and if I don’t remove it within a day or two it starts to mold (or something) and then sticks to my substrate making it impossible to vacuum out, it will not suck into the vacuum because it’s weighed down by the substrate and it just tumbles in the gravel vacuum tube and the same thing when I use my Fluval or Ehiem battery powered vacuums. I’ve also tried using a turkey baster/dosing syringe, but it is harder than it looks.

 

I have thought about trying to make some sort of a platform out of a small cup or dish to put the food on when it is time for feeding.

I have tried one attempt at this already which failed because with the way the Shrimp King products expand in the water they because so weightless that even the water movement from a shrimp kicking its legs manages to scatter food all over the tank.

 

If anyone has any ideas or has solved this problem in the smallest help me greatly appreciated and I am hoping to see some pictures and hear some ideas of what people might have done to try to solve the problem because I’m sure I’m not the only person that has had this experience.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Matuva]

I feed my shrimps just enough, 2 times daily: at noon and at 7/8 PM. I mean, e.g  2/3 waffers (size of a pill) for an average 200 shrimps. At this time, I'm using JBL Novofect, and they like it a lot.

Generally, they have eaten all stuff in less 2 hours.

I have standard soil in most of my tanks, made of 2 mms quartz. Some food gets into the substrate, but I have a herd of red worms cleaning.

No problems so far, healthy shrimps and clean tanks °°)

Edited November 27, 2017 by Matuva

[jayc]

@cdaJiv, unfortunately that is a very common problem. The excess food trapped in the substrate also promote planaria and nematodes.

I use a glass feeding dish to minimise the food sinking into the substrate. However, that is not fool proof either, at least not shrimp proof. The shrimp get into the glass feeding dish and kick up a storm, they drag food out of the feeding dish to horde it for themselves. It does help a bit, as the majority of the food is kept in the feeding dish. maybe my feeding dish is too small. A larger dish might work to capture more food, even from hording shrimps. Something like a tea cup saucer sized feeding dish would work, but then it looks huge in a 10gal tank.

Just make sure you place the feeding dish in a calm part of the tank away from the filter outlet.

You can also try feeding them less. Shrimp don't eat much. Daily feeding is unnecessary. Once every other day should be sufficient.