I will use (as before, when enough shrimps as newly started), the shrimp king 5 in 1 pack (smashed up and mixed), shirakura Chi ebi, crusta gran baby, and I alternate those. The chi ebi is for the babies I believe? These for the week days and way less than the manufacturers recommend.

Saturdays was cooked spinach, and sunday a shrimp lolly only!

Simon

44 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

I will use (as before, when enough shrimps as newly started), the shrimp king 5 in 1 pack (smashed up and mixed), shirakura Chi ebi, crusta gran baby, and I alternate those. The chi ebi is for the babies I believe? These for the week days and way less than the manufacturers recommend.

Saturdays was cooked spinach, and sunday a shrimp lolly only!

Simon

Smashed up and mixed? Like, smashed and mixed like a powder? Similar to BacterAE.

9 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

Mineral Junkie balls, but are these really worth it?

The short answer is no, they are not worth it. 

 

7 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

What about foods? What are your preferred foods?

Any shrimp specific food as long as it's not fish food.
But soon you will gravitate to fresh foods like leaves, vegetables, even fruits and flowers. Don't forget to add some protein in their diet like frozen blood worms.

 

I even make my own foods now. Which I shared the recipe in the Food & Nutrition forum -  I call it SKF (Shrimp Kandy Feast).

Edited August 29, 20196 yr by jayc

My shrimp don’t seem to be interested in anything prepared. Why no fish food. I’m feeding Shrimp king but I’ve never heard that before.

 

 

Well, a 17.1 gallon Aquamaxx is now on its way too....

Edited August 29, 20196 yr by Steensj2004

5 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

17.1 gallon Aquamaxx is now on its way too

LOL. Your tank collection is growing.

 

5 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

My shrimp don’t seem to be interested in anything prepared

Like what?

Unless the shrimp is sick or in a new tank with lots of biofilm, shrimp usually don't ignore food. They will eat eventually, when they get hungry.

13 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

Smashed up and mixed? Like, smashed and mixed like a powder? Similar to BacterAE.

The 5 come in separate packs so I smash them before opening them with a hammer, not as fine as a powder as they are quite tough and then mix them together in an old tin. I then use an old shrimp lolly sick to feed it to the shrimps by dipping a couple of mm of the end of the stick int he tank to wet it, then quickly into the mix and then back to the tank and swirl it about. This way gets a variety for the shrimp and spreads it throughout the tank. I use the same old shrimp lolly stick for the chi ebi powder (and bacter ae)! 

I think/hope JayC is right that in a new tank they only eat the biofilm as my shrimp don't touch anything I add YET, but I only have a few shrimps at this stage and it is just a couple of months old. I am sure when they start breeding or I buy more shrimps they will starton the foods, they did before!

Simon 

Wow this has just morphed into a shrimp food discussion page ?. Useful info tho! I've only seen my shrimp eating twice, but suspect they eat when the fish are sleeping or just are grazing on the biofilm and algae all the time (The 2 times r once back when it was just snails n shrimp, when I fed algae wafers, and also recently saw a shrimp eating his own poop ? was very impressed). I don't have a shrimp specific food, but have tried feeding veggies, and never seen anything but snails take that (zucchini and lettuce) any easy options? I also never see my BNs eating anything but the algae on their piece of driftwood (they love it!) and some algae wafers after the lights go out, what veggies could I try for them? (I rlly don't want to be spending much money on shrimp or bn food if not necessary)

Edited August 29, 20196 yr by Crabclaw

As I mentioned I use spinach on saturday, but they aren't interested at this point but hopefully they will be when I have more shrimps and they then need more food. This is what used to happen when I put the spinach in the tank, there are 2 baby leaves in the picture but you can't really see them as the shrimps are all over them;

Any fresh food needs to be organic though! I currently do it with the bettas weekly pea. Just put spinach and pea in a cup, pour on boiling water from the kettle, then put the cup in the microwave on full for 2 minutes and hay presto................. The shrimps will eat pea but you need to de-skin the 2 soft halves so the shrimp can get to the centre.

As you say, they aren't all that picky and will eat their shells and poop etc IF they are hungry enough! As for spending a lot on food, if you don't overfeed it lasts a very long time, The first 5 in 1 pack I had has lasted over a year with over 100 shrimps, most of that time (still some of it left) as the more you buy in variety it lasts longer as you're not using it every time so actually even shrimp specialised foods are really cheap in the long term I think?

Simon

Awesome!! You guys have been more hell that I could have asked for.

 

see multiple molts this AM, everyone looking healthy and scavenging around! Have all 5 shrimp king foods, I’ll try a mix. They do pick at things I add, but they are clearly eating because I’m watching small areas of biofilm disappear.

Oh, and another question. Does anyone have a better bleeping dosing chart for Salty Shrimp (both kinda). Because as of now, I haven’t figured it out. I have to add a little, test, add a bit more, and test again. Otherwise, I overshoot and have to dilute, it’s a total PITA.

Can't help with that as I use a liquid one by shrimp king (dennerle) which is much easier as it has a dropper on top! You do have to keep testing in the same fashion as you say but I use the TDS pen to stir so it is almost instant. There are other liquid ones as well I believe?

Simon

https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/shrimp-king/803-shrimp-king-mineral-fluid-double-gh-4001615061413.html

Edited August 29, 20196 yr by sdlTBfanUK

Just now, sdlTBfanUK said:

Can't help with that as I use a liquid one by shrimp king (dennerle) which is much easier as it has a dropper on top! You do have to keep testing in the same fashion as you say but I use the TDS pen to stir so it is almost instant. There are other liquid ones as well I believe?

Simon

Poop. I also use a TDS pen, and the conversion is like (1) level scoop to 10 liters of water. Works out to something like (1) scoop per 2.6 gallons or some crap.  I’m just trying to find out how much to add to every 5 gallons of RO/DI I make, but haven’t nailed it down yet.

1 hour ago, Steensj2004 said:

You guys have been more hell that I could have asked for.

LOL HAHA, yeah, I hope not. But I do love to give hell to new members sometimes.

 

16 minutes ago, Steensj2004 said:

Does anyone have a better bleeping dosing chart for Salty Shrimp

Dosing chart? No.

But here is another pro tip you won't get anywhere else ... Get an empty 500ml water bottle,  and premix the Salty shrimp in it. 

Add 400ml of RO water and dilute approx 100gm of SS into it (or as much as you can fit without overflow).

Then you just need to drip the SS liquid each time. You count the number of drops the first time to get to your desired TDS level, then you just need to repeat the number of drops for every other water change.

4 minutes ago, Steensj2004 said:

Poop. I also use a TDS pen, and the conversion is like (1) level scoop to 10 liters of water. Works out to something like (1) scoop per 2.6 gallons or some crap.  I’m just trying to find out how much to add to every 5 gallons of RO/DI I make, but haven’t nailed it down yet.

Mathematically that should just be 2 level scoops for 5 gallons so should be easy enough! We all know though that theory doesn't always work - in theory the titanic was unsinkable right?

Simon

3 minutes ago, jayc said:

LOL HAHA, yeah, I hope not. But I do love to give hell to new members sometimes.

 

Dosing chart? No.

But here is another pro tip you won't get anywhere else ... Get an empty 500ml water bottle,  and premix the Salty shrimp in it. 

Add 400ml of RO water and dilute approx 100gm of SS into it (or as much as you can fit without overflow).

Then you just need to drip the SS liquid each time. You count the number of drops the first time to get to your desired TDS level, then you just need to repeat the number of drops for every other water change.

Hmmmmm, I like that. So basically, you mix a remineralization concentrate, and find out the ratio to water volume you’re mixing.  Nice!

14 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Mathematically that should just be 2 level scoops for 5 gallons so should be easy enough! We all know though that theory doesn't always work - in theory the titanic was unsinkable right?

Simon

Tried that. It was over, and because I’m insanely neurotic, that doesn’t work for me. Lol.  

@jayc 

Do you thing this Fluval Plant 3.0 will still work for carpeting plants on the 17.1 gallon? 23.7" x 11.9" x 14.2"

 

looks like the 17.1 is going to be a Crystal Red Tank 

9.6 gallon Jades/ or Fire Reds from LRBrerz

Spec V Cull Tank 

 

Edited August 29, 20196 yr by Steensj2004

9 hours ago, Steensj2004 said:

Do you thing this Fluval Plant 3.0 will still work for carpeting plants on the 17.1 gallon? 23.7" x 11.9" x 14.2"

Yes, it's not a very tall tank, assuming nothing blocks the light down to the carpeting plants. 

Ran another test on the tank:

 

PH:6.6

GH:6

KH:0-1

TDS: 160

 

Also, figured out that on one level scoop of the GH+ ( actually just a hair under) is exactly right for 5 gallons. 

Edited August 30, 20196 yr by Steensj2004

So I did a thing... we shall see what kind of response this brings....

Another advantage of smashing up the pellets is they don't all have to fight and scrum to get some food and  it will spread out in the tank, and being smaller will be better suited to shrimplets and juveniles! I think I need to get one of those mortar and pestles I think?

Glad to hear you have worked out the GH+ ratio!

Those tank parameters look perfect for bee shrimps and even cherry should be ok as those readings are quite close to my fish and red cherry shrimp tank.

Simon

1 hour ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Another advantage of smashing up the pellets is they don't all have to fight and scrum to get some food and  it will spread out in the tank, and being smaller will be better suited to shrimplets and juveniles! I think I need to get one of those mortar and pestles I think?

Glad to hear you have worked out the GH+ ratio!

Those tank parameters look perfect for bee shrimps and even cherry should be ok as those readings are quite close to my fish and red cherry shrimp tank.

Simon

Soon I’ll have designated Bee/ Cherry tanks. This mortar and pestle was around 8.00USD. Pretty cheap IMHO.

I have put that on my shopping list.

Simon

Question. If a female is berried, can you always see the eggs right off, or no? She keeps fanning her swimmerets like she’s moving eggs, but I can’t quite see any. I’ve only seen one so that when there are eggs...

Edited August 31, 20196 yr by Steensj2004

Well I saw eggs on my tts the day she got berried. I know that cuz the day before, she was the only female with a saddle, and haven’t seen any other ones with saddles.

Edited September 1, 20196 yr by Crabclaw

It is harder to see eggs on Caridina shrimps as the colour is solid but I think you would still see the eggs, they usually go from yellow to grey as they develop! Sometimes the shrimp may drop the eggs for some reason, or maybe they have hatched out and will be VERY tiny and hard to see as they start out clear and would naturally hide.

I wouldn't worry too much though as long as the parameters are good and you have plenty and thats a yes to both you will get babies at some stage. As you haven't had them long so was probably berried when you got her, she may have been stressed and dropped the eggs?  

Simon