# Shrimp live food



## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

Is there any live food that shrimp will eat? Daphina? Clam shrimp? Fairy shrimp? Brine shrimp? 

I assume they would eat live worms but I've never had an interest in culturing micro worms or bigger.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

Rigio said:


> Is there any live food that shrimp will eat? Daphina? Clam shrimp? Fairy shrimp? Brine shrimp?
> 
> I assume they would eat live worms but I've never had an interest in culturing micro worms or bigger.


The problem with most of the foods you listed is that they are highly mobile. Little shrimp can jump or swim out of the way. Daphnia and Brine shrimp may not be quick but they can get out of the way pretty easily. How would the shrimp catch the live brine shrimp in the first place? They just aren't equipped for it. Worms they would definitely eat because something like a bloodworm can't escape, it sort of sits there and wriggles. It can easily be picked up because of its size by the shrimp's 'claws'.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

mistersprinkles said:


> The problem with most of the foods you listed is that they are highly mobile. Little shrimp can jump or swim out of the way. Daphnia and Brine shrimp may not be quick but they can get out of the way pretty easily. How would the shrimp catch the live brine shrimp in the first place? They just aren't equipped for it. Worms they would definitely eat because something like a bloodworm can't escape, it sort of sits there and wriggles. It can easily be picked up because of its size by the shrimp's 'claws'.


That's disappointing


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Dwarf shrimps are scavengers, not predators. They are only able to eat detritus or carcasses.

Larger shrimps, such as the macrobrachium, can hunt. Amano shrimps are opportunity hunters and won't hesitate to pounce on a sick or dying fish. I have seen this happen many times with guppy fry.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

solarz said:


> Dwarf shrimps are scavengers, not predators. They are only able to eat detritus or carcasses.
> 
> Larger shrimps, such as the macrobrachium, can hunt. Amano shrimps are opportunity hunters and won't hesitate to pounce on a sick or dying fish. I have seen this happen many times with guppy fry.


+1 and "like" clicked


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## Dee2010 (Mar 26, 2013)

Agree with solarz. Amano are quite predacious, I've seen mine pounce on fish that just appear to be ill and try to eat them while they are still alive, quite an awful scene.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

Dee2010 said:


> Agree with solarz. Amano are quite predacious, I've seen mine pounce on fish that just appear to be ill and try to eat them while they are still alive, quite an awful scene.


Yeah I've seen mine jump on my sick rams.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

It's not like the little shrimp can really hurt the fish. Maybe pick at its slimecoat a little but that's it. Amano 'claws' have no power in them IME.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

mistersprinkles said:


> It's not like the little shrimp can really hurt the fish. Maybe pick at its slimecoat a little but that's it. Amano 'claws' have no power in them IME.


I beg to differ, I watched one of my Amanos grab the caudal find of a Germany blue ram and hold him in place while the ram tried to swim away. I then had to net the amano to make him stop.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I know Tommy at Shrimpfever has been feeding some frozen brine shrimp, among other things.. and to mini fan shrimp at that. They love it.. and frozen stuff is dead, so easily 'caught'. I've fed frozen daphnia and they love that too, and I've seen shrimp take microworms off the bottom as well as shrimp larvae take them from the water column.

I agree some of the larger shrimps, like Amano, Ghosts and Blue Claw Whiskers, will prey on pretty much anything they can catch and hang onto successfully. Fast fish, like my danios, don't seem to be at risk, nor were any of the kuhli loaches ever harmed.

I've kept all 3 of those species in one tank, with danios, kuhli loaches, snails of various kinds, Snowball shrimp and Flower [fan] shrimp, and I never lost a fish or a fan shrimp to any of the 3.

I am certain I lost some baby Snowballs, but not enough to stop their population from growing steadily. This was in a 29 G that was heavily planted and furnished with rocks and wood, so loads of hiding spots.

The biggest issue I ever had was with a shrimp that came with either Amano or Blue Claws, that turned out to be a slightly larger type of Machro. Bycatch, I assume.

It got into my 5G tank with the little shrimplets I was raising, I think when I was transferring the Snowball colony to that same tank. I used to put the berried females in there 'til they dropped the eggs, then take them out. I think the sneaky machro was accidentally netted along with a pregnant Ghost shrimp.

Once it grew a bit, it wiped the Snowballs out in a fairly short space of time, and I did not know it was there for ages. Very good at hiding, would just dart out to grab something and then retreat. Quite a dark brown colour, with substantially larger claws than any of the other shrimp species I kept. A few of those would easily wipe out a tank of small fish or shrimp. I've never been able to ID the species for sure, but it was certainly one of the small Machrobrachiums.


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