New to shrimp, what to feed them with little prep time

[TheLordOfTheFish]

Hi everyone, I've got a 55 gallon super high tech tank with CO2, etc and a bunch of CRS. So far, I've been only feeding them the random algae wafer here and there but they seem happy grazing the tank for algae. 2 things happened the last week: I've spotted 3 females berried and some of the more mature shrimp are losing their color fast. I figured I should start feeding them a more appropriate diet. What sort of dry pellet food should I buy? Do I need to worry about copper in the food? Also, I have a baby and a toddler so ideally I stick to food I can buy online, no life food or some veggie paste that I have to cook myself. My wife would kill me...:D

 

Thanks!

Edited January 30, 2019 by TheLordOfTheFish

[jayc]

1 hour ago, TheLordOfTheFish said:

What sort of dry pellet food should I buy?

Where are you located?

That can determine what is available.

However, in general, shrimp specific foods are recommended. Fish foods are not the best for shrimp.

 

Nothing beats fresh food either.

And it doesn't have to be difficult either.

Blanch some zucchini and drop that in the tank. You can cut the ends of a zucchini, which would normally go in the bin, and boil that for 2-3 minutes.

Or, you can blanch some leaves like mulberry, banana, ... any non oily soft leaf.

You can drop in flowers, that you might already have in the garden. As long as you are sure no pesticides or fertilisers have been sprayed on the flowers or leaves.

You can also feed shrimp frozen bloodworms, that is a must to keep them strong leading up to breeding. 

Additionally, drop in a few Indian Almond Leaves (IAL or Cattapa). They will breakdown slowly, and help increase biofilm. The shrimp will eat the IAL and biofilm.

Ate some prawns or fish last night? drop a bit of the off cut/ scrap meat into the tank. As long as it is clean of oil or Tartar sauce :)

Shrimps are scavengers, they'll eat almost anything. 

If you would like more inspiration of what to feed shrimp, have a read of the Food and Nutrition section of the forum.

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forum/44-food-nutrition/

 

 

[TheLordOfTheFish]

I am Los Angeles based. Amazing tips, thanks for the link! I will start reading. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Mine love spinach, MUST be organic though. I just keep a bag of baby spinach leaves from the supermarket in my freezer and give them a couple a week. Takes LESS than 5 minutes all in.

Simon

Edited January 31, 2019 by sdlTBfanUK

[jayc]

22 hours ago, TheLordOfTheFish said:

I am Los Angeles based.

We have a lot of shrimp keepers from the US. They might be able to give you pointers on where to buy/order some good quality shrimp food.

But some of the fresh food alternatives can cost virtually nothing. If you bought spinach (good tip there Simon) or zucchinis or carrots for your family to eat, any off cuts can be blanched and used as shrimp food. Flowers from the garden are free, so are some leaves. 

If you are in doubt over something being safe to feed shrimp or not, raise a post in the Food and Nutrition subforum. We will be more than happy to help you out.

 

[beanbag]

On 1/30/2019 at 4:54 PM, TheLordOfTheFish said:

I am Los Angeles based.

If you want the pre-made food, e.g. Shrimp King, GlasGarten, Mosura, etc, you can usually get them off ebay.

Throw in a few pellets, and be done with it.