Chili rasboras eating shrimp food, is this bad?

[xanify]

I have a well-established planted nano tank with 9 chili rasboras and 7 shrimp (probably... I haven't seen more than 2-3 at a time since I got them a week ago, but I haven't found dead shrimp either). I feed the chili rasboras daily with frozen food and they gobble it up, but every time I drop one of these Xtreme Shrimpee Sinking Sticks it's the chilis that gather around picking on it for hours and not any of the shrimp... 

Is this fine? Presumably the shrimp are getting enough to eat from the algae and stuff on the plants, and that's why they're ignoring the shrimpee sticks, but I'm concerned that I might be overfeeding the chilis if I keep doing this? 

[Guppysnail]

The chilis are fine to eat the shrimp food. The biggest danger in overfeeding is polluting the water. If you are not adding extra shrimp food for them specifically it’s quite fine. Chilis are not prone to overeating to the gorged point nor are they prone to obesity. 

[xanify]

Thanks! Is there any way I can make it more likely the shrimp will eat their food? I've tried placing the sticks by hand where they seem to like to hang out (not helpful, the chilis still get it first) ... but I am feeding in the morning, do shrimp maybe prefer to eat at night? Or should I just go longer in between shrimp feeds, like aim for 1x a week instead of 2-3x? 

[Lennie]

On 5/18/2024 at 7:54 PM, xanify said:

Thanks! Is there any way I can make it more likely the shrimp will eat their food? I've tried placing the sticks by hand where they seem to like to hang out (not helpful, the chilis still get it first) ... but I am feeding in the morning, do shrimp maybe prefer to eat at night? Or should I just go longer in between shrimp feeds, like aim for 1x a week instead of 2-3x? 

Shrimp only really eat dropped food if they are hungry. If they ignore it, they are very likely not hungry. Or maybe not like the food

 

They probably enjoy the natural growth of biofilm, algae, leftover fish food, etc. in your tank. So not hungry enough to go after shrimp sticks.

 

I used to feed my shrimp shrimp food too. But I quit it while ago. I provide an established tank, let them enjoy high quality fish food, keep a few botanicals around, and feed them bee pollen from time to time. I also dose mont.clay during water changes and use gh+. 

I don't think they need shrimp food really. So I don't see any point to make them eat it in your scenario. They seem to do fine without it anyway.

I have never kept caridinas tho. I am talking for my neocaridina experience only.

In terms of harm, I assume it wouldn't be that problematic for the fish. But the ingredients don't seem as the greatest for the fish really. I wouldn't want my fish to stuff themself up with a shrimp food with such ingredients myself but instead with high quality fish food. Like the first ingredient is grain products in the mentioned shrimp food

Quote

Ingredients: Grain Products, Animal Protein Products of Marine Origins, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Soy Lecithin, Limestone Ground, Fish Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Propionate (preservative), Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, dl-Methionine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin-5 Phosphate, Niacin d-Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Zinc Oxide, Ethoxyquin We replaced probiotics with Vitality Pak, an all-natural, nutritional feed supplement, designed to improve overall fish health and resistance to disease.

I'm not a fan to be honest. Personal opinion

 

I like Dennerle's  Shrimp King complete much better if you really want to feed shrimp food:

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Shrimp King Complete

Complete food for ornamental shrimps

Composition: kelp, insect proteins, dandelion, stinging nettle, spinach, mulberry leaves, chlorella, montmorillonite, moringaoleifera, rosemary, mannanoligosaccarides, ß-glucans, flower pollen, turmeric, cinnamon

 

[xanify]

Oh hmm, so it sounds like my shrimp are probably fine, but I'm maybe underfeeding my chilis if they're going for the shrimp food ... I'll see what I can do about that. Thanks!!

[Lennie]

On 5/18/2024 at 9:46 PM, xanify said:

Oh hmm, so it sounds like my shrimp are probably fine, but I'm maybe underfeeding my chilis if they're going for the shrimp food ... I'll see what I can do about that. Thanks!!

Just to be clear, I did not mention anything about underfeeding fish. It is impossible to tell with zero info given anyway

You might be feeding your fish enough and they could be still going after shrimp sticks.

 

[Lonkley]

You shouldn't need to convince your shrimp to eat. They are the most food motivated creatures I've ever seen, and I have a cat. 

I just use hikari pellets and algae wafers. But you're right, they likely have plenty of food if f you're tank is established.

Edited May 18 by Lonkley

[Lennie]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:13 PM, xanify said:

I was going off the earlier comment about chilis not being prone to overeating, you don't need to be snide about it

We are here to help each other in this forum. Helping and trying to explain a situation that may cause a potential misunderstanding is not sniding.

Considering you talk about my message at the beginning and thanking me at the end, I wanted to clarify my message to make sure not to cause any potential overfeeding due to a potential misunderstanding. That's it.

 

I see you are new to the forum. Quoting while responding may help to notify the message sender, and show the direction of your response better. You can see the quote option below every entry. You can also directly choose related lines of a message and click "quote selection".

[xanify]

On 5/18/2024 at 1:22 PM, Lennie said:

I see you are new to the forum. Quoting while responding may help to notify the message sender, and show the direction of your response better. You can see the quote option below every entry. You can also directly choose related lines of a message and click "quote selection".

Yes, I'm new to this forum and new to fishkeeping. Earlier I was combining what you said (shrimp will ignore food if they're not hungry) with what another person said earlier about fish (chili rasboras are not prone to overeating) to conclude that, if my shrimp are not eating shrimp food and instead my chilis are eating it, then perhaps my shrimp are fine but I am not feeding enough fish food and that's something I could experiment with. 

On 5/18/2024 at 11:55 AM, Lennie said:

You might be feeding your fish enough and they could be still going after shrimp sticks.

Fair enough.

I appreciate you taking the time to educate me. 

[johnnyxxl]

Many fish can be gluttons, my tiger barbs beg for food every time I walk near the tank.  But they are fed plenty.  The begging is actually part of why I got them personally. I would bet that your Rasbora are also just getting the food because it's provided.