# Best staple food for Shrimp



## deepblue3 (Jan 11, 2014)

Hi, there are so many shrimp foods out there, that I don't know what to get. I have Taiwan bees as well as Rilis. Any recommendations for best staple diet?


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

A rotation of foods is a good idea. I rotate between: blanched organic kale, snowflake food, hikari algae wafers, and lowkeys spiral food. The kale, wafers, and spiral food contain a large amount of nutrients to keep them happy and healthy. You can also add in probiotics to your tank which can be found on either shrimpwiki or shrimpfever.


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## hollowpoint (Aug 26, 2014)

*Home made food.*

I also rotate a number of different foods, including a home made wafer, blanched broccoli, Biomax #2's, frozen brine shrimp, and TetraFin Goldfish flakes.

The home made wafers are made from equal parts; blueberries, strawberries, spinach, broccoli, carrots, celery. Blend all that up in your blender, and then lay it out in the dehydrator over night. You want the result to be dry and hard. Then I cut them up into little squares, and put them in the freezer. The wafers are perfect for a Friday afternoon to carry your guys through the weekend (my tank is on my desk at work). If there is anything left over on Monday morning I throw it away and continue with regular feeding.

Feeding schedule.

I feed my fish TetraFin Goldfish flakes once or twice a day on weekdays, so that is the staple in my tank.

Twice a week I feed Biomax #2. If there are shimplets in the tank I crush the pellets into a fine powder and inject with a syringe.

On Fridays they get a wafer, or some broccoli.

Occasionally I feed frozen brine shrimp as a treat.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Thanks for that recipe! I am definitely gonna try that


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

I am feeding snowflake (soybeen husks) and Biomax and Hikari Algae wafers
rotated every other day. I am finding that only the White Bee shrimps and Neo Blue Diamonds are eating anything.

In the Royal Blue Tiger/OEBT tank which also has a few Blue Neo shrimps they just aren't interested in any of these foods. They are constantly picking over the sponge filter and my Hornwort Tree and moss covered lava rocks. Ive given up trying to get them to eat any of these foods above as I end up vaccumming it back up the next day.

In the last tank I have some paler blue Neos, and the new Galaxy Tigers, who don't even look at any food other than the sponge filter and algae on the glass they are definitely biofilm eaters. I have had several of them molt already too.

If your tank has enough biofilm on the rocks, substrate, filters, glass etc you
will find most shrimp prefer to graze on that rather than commercially made foods. If they do eat the food then that's great, some just never do.

When I was breeding Taiwans...BKK, BB, Wine Reds etc, I found that they
didn't like commercial food either and I had no problem with them getting berried. 

For baby shrimplets I used crushed to powder earthworm flakes, and Mosura Gravidas, which I squirted into the tank so that babies could find it. Adults mostly ignored it.

I have Mulberry squares from Tantora and they won't eat those either...go figure.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

hollowpoint said:


> I also rotate a number of different foods, including a home made wafer, blanched broccoli, Biomax #2's, frozen brine shrimp, and TetraFin Goldfish flakes.
> 
> The home made wafers are made from equal parts; blueberries, strawberries, spinach, broccoli, carrots, celery. Blend all that up in your blender, and then lay it out in the dehydrator over night. You want the result to be dry and hard. Then I cut them up into little squares, and put them in the freezer. The wafers are perfect for a Friday afternoon to carry your guys through the weekend (my tank is on my desk at work). If there is anything left over on Monday morning I throw it away and continue with regular feeding.
> 
> ...


Do you boil them before blending?


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## hollowpoint (Aug 26, 2014)

I don't boil or cook the food before blending. The dehydrator is pretty warm and 'bakes' the food low and slow for 8 hours.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

awesome, thanks!


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## deepblue3 (Jan 11, 2014)

Are you all enjoying the snow?  
Speaking of snow--- The snowflake food you mentioned do you think the shrimp eat much of it?


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## deepblue3 (Jan 11, 2014)

bettaforu said:


> In the Royal Blue Tiger/OEBT tank which also has a few Blue Neo shrimps they just aren't interested in any of these foods. They are constantly picking over the sponge filter and my Hornwort Tree and moss covered lava rocks. Ive given up trying to get them to eat any of these foods above as I end up vaccumming it back up the next day.
> 
> If your tank has enough biofilm on the rocks, substrate, filters, glass etc you
> will find most shrimp prefer to graze on that rather than commercially made foods. If they do eat the food then that's great, some just never do.
> ...


I have to say that I am noticing the same, with shrimp not eating much commercial shrimp foods - which is why I started the post.

I do have a few baby plecos in one of my tanks and its funny, the shrimp ignore the "shrimp foods" and just join the plecos with the catfish sinking pellets and zucchini, and also just hanging on the filters and moss. The shrimp food goes uneaten!


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## hollowpoint (Aug 26, 2014)

Shrimp are scavengers right? So they are probaly waiting for all that fresh commercial food to rot and give it some flavor =)


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## flanneryc (Jul 25, 2009)

deepblue3 said:


> Are you all enjoying the snow?
> Speaking of snow--- The snowflake food you mentioned do you think the shrimp eat much of it?


I use the snowflake food as well and it is on of the favorites in my tank. ALTHOUGH I have to agree with hollowpoint, my shrimp get just as excited when i accidentally stir up the substrate and the rotten food comes to the top.  LOL


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## deepblue3 (Jan 11, 2014)

flanneryc said:


> I use the snowflake food as well and it is on of the favorites in my tank. ALTHOUGH I have to agree with hollowpoint, my shrimp get just as excited when i accidentally stir up the substrate and the rotten food comes to the top.  LOL


haha! amazing! Those crazy shrimps. We spend all this money on expensive food and they want nothing to do with it.


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## jumpsmasher (Oct 1, 2012)

shrimps are scavengers by nature so 90% of their diet is biofilm and other natural foods found in their environment. So we we feed is is probably only around 10% of their daily intake; they are always picking away at the substrate and other objects in the tank for food.

I have a set schedule for my shrimps with a different type of food each day depending on the shrimp (I have around 20 different type of foods). New shrimps usually take a while to settle in before accepting the food you feed them; sometimes weeks or months. Some are just shy and won't come out in the open for food so you have to literally put the food in front of them.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

that's what I do too....put it right in front of their noses. My Galaxy leopard tigers don't eat any of it...they sit on the sponge filter or panty hose over my whisper filter and eat whatever is getting sucked in there 

I have to say the easiest ones to feed anything too is the white bees...they
are first to the table, then along comes the royal blue tigers, then the neos.

I am feeding, snowflake, biomax, algae wafers, some mulberry and crab cuisine alternated. So far everyone likes the menu.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

It took quite a while for my Blue Bolts to finally come around to any of my home foods. Now they go for anything that goes in the tank


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