# Feeding Shrimp



## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

Most people buy the expensive shrimp foods and still struggle to keep them alive and breeding. I have tried the top of the line Shirakura which my shrimp will eat reluctantly if I with hold other food. My CRS, CBS, Tiger and Cherry shrimp Love Northfin Veggie and Kale that has been frozen and thawed and anchored down with a small stone. They don't go for it much until the second and third day until it starts to break down. Kale is about the most nutritious food that can be found. I also feed a bit of crushed flake.


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## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

my shrimps love kale, I like to feed them a bunch of stuff form mosura to blood worms, spinach , cucumber, parsley and kale. They love it all.


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## LTPGuy (Aug 8, 2012)

*You are what you eat?*



Bwhiskered said:


> Most people buy the expensive shrimp foods and still struggle to keep them alive and breeding. I have tried the top of the line Shirakura which my shrimp will eat reluctantly if I with hold other food. My CRS, CBS, Tiger and Cherry shrimp Love Northfin Veggie and Kale that has been frozen and thawed and anchored down with a small stone. They don't go for it much until the second and third day until it starts to break down. Kale is about the most nutritious food that can be found. I also feed a bit of crushed flake.


I had similar thought/wonder about expensive shrimps foods also.

I would appreciate anyone who has long term used with them to chime in with their personal observation.

My feeding regiment are as follow...

Weekday - boiled/steam spinach or green peas with the occasional carrot). Will have to add kale to this list. I find that shrimps are on the veg immediately and finish them quite quickly when they are boiled/steamed vs raw frozen.

Saturday- fish food pellets/flakes from a variety sources/brand as a source of protein and maybe trace elements.

Sunday - is a fasting day, and sometime Monday too.

I was thinking earlier today about adding small pieces of raw frozen shrimp to the Saturday regiment.

My thought is that you are what you eat, and so in feeding your shrimps shrimp, they are getting all of the nutrient including trace element that they need. Is there a flaw in this logic?


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

Most shrimp are scavengers and I see no reason to make manufacturers of specific shrimp foods rich.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Variety is the key if you can manage it, be it commercially made or natural. Commercially made food (the good ones) cover most if not all shrimp needs, or designed to fortify a particular area of nutrients (colouration, growth rate, breeding, ... etc).

I wouldn't think $10 or even $30 a bottle of commercially made food is too expensive. One bottle or bag should last more than a year for most of us. 

One warning though, although variety is the key, overfeeding is definitely a big NO NO.


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## LTPGuy (Aug 8, 2012)

randy said:


> Variety is the key if you can manage it, be it commercially made or natural. Commercially made food (the good ones) cover most if not all shrimp needs, or designed to fortify a particular area of nutrients (colouration, growth rate, breeding, ... etc).
> 
> I wouldn't think $10 or even $30 a bottle of commercially made food is too expensive. One bottle or bag should last more than a year for most of us.
> 
> One warning though, although variety is the key, overfeeding is definitely a big NO NO.


My shrimps will finish what I feed them within 3-4 hours, and will eat more if I feed them more. Is this underfed or overfed.

$30 for how many shrimps to last a year? What's the different between the $10 and $30 version?

Would you recommend a food for Neos as it is a bit of work to prep and store the natural diet. You can PM if there is a concern about posting your recommendation.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

LTPGuy said:


> My shrimps will finish what I feed them within 3-4 hours, and will eat more if I feed them more. Is this underfed or overfed.
> 
> $30 for how many shrimps to last a year? What's the different between the $10 and $30 version?
> 
> Would you recommend a food for Neos as it is a bit of work to prep and store the natural diet. You can PM if there is a concern about posting your recommendation.


Let me say a bit more on what I believe in -- the more you feed your shrimps (or more importantly, the more your shrimps eat) the faster they will grow and hopefully the faster they will breed. However, like most animal, they are actually better off staying somewhat hungry to be more active and healthier. I know it's just an imaginary number, but if you can keep them 60%-70% full most of the time I think that's better than to get them always 100% full.

I have over 20 shrimp tanks and over 1000 of shrimps (Neo not counted), I opened three bags of shrimp food in June, 2013 (one for red shrimps, one for black/blue, one for juvi and fast grow) and I think I still have more than half in each bag. I feed 3 times a week using these and 1 - 2 times with either blanched spinach or powdered baby food. Pick a good and reputable brand is very important, I'm not going to name names in the open forum though.


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## Splak (May 1, 2013)

Ive fed my shrimps peas without the skin lately, they love them. I tried spinach 2 times now, and they will NOT touch it.... I do boil it. (Crystal shrimps).

Guess im sticking to peas and a variety of fish foods.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I would think shrimp are similar to many animals, including us, humans, where an ideal diet is concerned. Many studies have shown that if people eat somewhat less than is required to feel full, they live longer, have better health, fewer weight issues, etc., and that's not to mention WHAT they eat, as well as how much of it they eat.

Same is true of many other animals, and since shrimp are by nature scavengers who can't rely on any given amount of any given food in their natural habitat, variety and quantity are the best to offer. 

And really, those two things are the only things we can control anyway. I do believe very strongly that man made foods should not make up the entire diet of any pet animal. Like us, they do better with the food they evolved to eat, in as close to its natural form as is reasonably possible. And since every shrimp I've ever kept has been more than happy to eat any of its friends that happen to die, be they other shrimp, snails or fish, I'd think feeding them small amounts of fresh shrimp or fish is probably not a bad thing either, provided the deceased critter didn't die of disease. This assumes you even notice one shrimp died and was eaten, because they can clean up another shrimp or small fish pretty darn fast when they choose to.


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## Shrimp Daddy (Mar 30, 2013)

*Daikon Leaves*

I've thrown in some blanched daikon radish leaves that my shrimp ate.


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