# food suitable for shrimp and tetras



## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

Does anyone have any advice on a type of food that is suitable for amano shrimp, cherry shrimp and neon tetras? Im looking for something that work for all the livestock in my tank.

Thanks


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## Atom (Sep 17, 2014)

Similarly to you, I have neon tetras and cherry shrimp in my community tank. I usually just feed the tetras flake food (tetramin) and let the shrimp feed off of whatever is left, biofilm, and algae.

If you'd like to feed food to your shrimp as well, I've heard that amanos can steal huge pellets of food for themselves so be aware that they might not eat your algae as much if they're full from pellets. You can try sinking foods (algae wafers, shrimp pellets, etc). I've heard good things about Hikari brand stuff, but I've used Omega One shrimp pellets in my tank before for my cory cats and see the tetras and shrimp pick at pieces as well. I don't know if it's worth it to try feeding higher end shrimp-specific foods in this case.

Tl;dr: I'd focus on feeding the fish because the shrimp will often graze on whatever is in the tank anyway.


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

Atom said:


> Similarly to you, I have neon tetras and cherry shrimp in my community tank. I usually just feed the tetras flake food (tetramin) and let the shrimp feed off of whatever is left, biofilm, and algae.
> 
> If you'd like to feed food to your shrimp as well, I've heard that amanos can steal huge pellets of food for themselves so be aware that they might not eat your algae as much if they're full from pellets. You can try sinking foods (algae wafers, shrimp pellets, etc). I've heard good things about Hikari brand stuff, but I've used Omega One shrimp pellets in my tank before for my cory cats and see the tetras and shrimp pick at pieces as well. I don't know if it's worth it to try feeding higher end shrimp-specific foods in this case.
> 
> Tl;dr: I'd focus on feeding the fish because the shrimp will often graze on whatever is in the tank anyway.


Hey,
Thanks for the reply. I'm doing the same as you but jsut worried that not enough is sinking down to the bottom for the shrimp. Also, arent heavy metals such as copper something that should be avoided with shrimp ?


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## Atom (Sep 17, 2014)

I, too, was worried about copper additives in foods, but apparently copper sulfate isn't a problem. I also tried to stay away from too much Ethoxyquin because I had heard that that's bad for fish AND shrimp, but I just bought foods with low amounts of that.

That's pretty much how I settled on Omega One shrimp pellets because they had no copper and Ethoxyquin was the last ingredient on the list.

Be careful about feeding your shrimp too much and foods that are too high in protein. I've heard that that can cause molting issues. I honestly just let those community shrimp graze on whatever's in the tank and they've been ok 

My shrimp-specific caridina tank is a different story though


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