# what do you feed your little ones?



## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

just out of curiousty, im wondering what everyone feeds their shrimp?

since i just started in this so i bought a few types and i am rotating between them (i dont know if this is good or not). the ones im using are borneowild barley, mosura excel, fluval shrimp granules and hikari shrimp cuisine.


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## laurahmm (Apr 1, 2010)

That's what I do as well  rotate the food. The shrimp seem to like it  and also in case some foods are missing some nutrients, the other types of food can supplement and vice versa.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

I feel Fluval Shrimp food, Laguna Barley pellets, Omega One Sink Algae wafers, Repashy super food-solient green, fresh spinach and dose the tank with Mosara bioplus or Ebi-Ken EI once-twice a week for the babies. As stated by Laura, variety is the key as each thing has different nutrients and vitamins and stuff in them, so by rotating, they will get everything they need. 

I only feed every 2 days and only a small amount. The biggest problem that I think every shrimp keeper at the start does, is feeds too much. A healthy tank with lots of moss and biofilm will provide most of their food source. Feed every few days and only a small amount (the fluval they get 3-4 pellets for 30-50 shrimp, half a algae wafer, repashy ball the size of a pea, etc) and that's every other day and I usually have a starve day every few weeks as well where I skip a day to let them purge their system and munch on biofilm instead.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

I feed a nice variety
-Borneowild Barley
-MOSURA Excel
-MOSURA CRS SPECIALITY
-REPASHY Shrimp Souffle


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## blueggreen (May 20, 2006)

*food*

I feed mine,wardley's spirulina discs,Nutrafin max cichlid spirulina sticks(they love these,since it floats they come the surface to feed,I have a heavily planted tank so the sticks get wedged in the plants on top.)to be on the safe side do not feed foods with copper in it,I also give them blanched organic baby spinich.once in awhile a small piece of almond leaf.I also let algae grow on one side of the tank, which I find they love to graze on.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

blueggreen said:


> do not feed foods with copper in it


thats one thing that i do not understand. everyone says do not put anything containing copper in the tank but the back of the Hikari Shrimp Cuisine says "contains copper which is necessary for blood regeneration". the ingredients lists copper sulfate as the second-last item.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

getochkn said:


> I feel Fluval Shrimp food


what about the copper oxide that is in the fluval shrimp food?


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## blueggreen (May 20, 2006)

If its shrimp food then copper oxide maybe safe for them, I haven't used that yet, but I fed them food that had copper sulphate and I had a lot of die off.my tank stablised after I stopped feeding them that food ,did gradual water changes and charcoal filter changes.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

blueggreen said:


> If its shrimp food then copper oxide maybe safe for them, I haven't used that yet, but I fed them food that had copper sulphate and I had a lot of die off.my tank stablised after I stopped feeding them that food ,did gradual water changes and charcoal filter changes.


i will stop feeding them the hikari immediately. that stuff should be on the banned list.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Copper in food is fine. Shrimp need small amounts of copper in their food for their blood, just like humans. The amount of copper that is in foods is no where near the amount that is toxic. Spinach, Kale, Spirulina, all contain copper yet are safe. Trace ferts contain copper and people dose them in tanks all the time.

Where the no-copper with shrimp comes from is Fish Medications in a shrimp tank. Back when shrimp keeping was mostly getting some ghost, amanos, wild neos, etc and keeping them in a tank with fish and shrimp only tanks weren't popular, people would get a sick fish and treat the tank, with a lot of parasite and ich medications being very heavy copper based (I'm talking like 5-10ppm or higher copper) and their shrimp and possible snails would die, people looked at the main ingredient in the meds and see it was copper, therefore the "copper kills shrimp" myth was born.

Yes at high doses in medications, copper will kill shrimp. In high dose, chlorine will kill people, yet we drink chlorinated water everyday of our lives and don't die. It's about the amounts the shrimp are getting. Most plant material, natural soil, etc, has traces of copper in it and since shrimp come from area with all kinds of natural soil and plant matter, chances are they in contact will small traces of copper in nature.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

getochkn said:


> Copper in food is fine. Shrimp need small amounts of copper in their food for their blood, just like humans. The amount of copper that is in foods is no where near the amount that is toxic. Spinach, Kale, Spirulina, all contain copper yet are safe. Trace ferts contain copper and people dose them in tanks all the time.
> 
> Where the no-copper with shrimp comes from is Fish Medications in a shrimp tank. Back when shrimp keeping was mostly getting some ghost, amanos, wild neos, etc and keeping them in a tank with fish and shrimp only tanks weren't popular, people would get a sick fish and treat the tank, with a lot of parasite and ich medications being very heavy copper based (I'm talking like 5-10ppm or higher copper) and their shrimp and possible snails would die, people looked at the main ingredient in the meds and see it was copper, therefore the "copper kills shrimp" myth was born.
> 
> Yes at high doses in medications, copper will kill shrimp. In high dose, chlorine will kill people, yet we drink chlorinated water everyday of our lives and don't die. It's about the amounts the shrimp are getting. Most plant material, natural soil, etc, has traces of copper in it and since shrimp come from area with all kinds of natural soil and plant matter, chances are they in contact will small traces of copper in nature.


perfect. i will continue to feed them hikari. at least this pack will not go to waste. lol


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

What GeToChKn said. Don't freak out on trace copper in shrimp food, it's when you dose medication or ferts(?) you need to be carefully reading the ingredients. 

Another thing just cross my mind and though it may be of some value. If you got mosquito issue in the room where your shrimp tanks are, you have to be very careful if you use any chemical for mosquito control. Chemical that kills insects is likely to kill your shrimp. 

For food, the importance is amount. However, as you get more experience, there's something you can do to increase breeding/growth, but too dangerous so I won't even mention for now. I'm also experimenting it.


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## rastafarian (Jun 24, 2012)

I feed my shrimps with Tropical shrimp sticks,Hikari shrimp cuisine,Dennerle crusta gran and with diy shrimp food that i made.


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## Egonsgirl (Feb 28, 2012)

Hikari mini algae wafers, barley pellets, Zoomed -Spirulina 20 flakes (salmon fish meal #1, spirulina meal #2), blanched organic spinach leaves. Also trying blanched stinging nettle leaves ( read about someone using these. I know they are very nutritive. I use it as a tea when sick.)


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