Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I finally added life to my 10g today in the form of 5 cherry shrimp and a Nerite snail - yay! What is the best thing to feed them in your experience? I have a lot of brown algae, some plant decay, nano banquet blocks and my LFS highly recommended Shrimp King Color for them every few days, so I got that as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) I just got my first shrimp today too. One guy I talked to said bacter ae is really good. Seems expensive at 16$ for 35grams though. For that price I feel like I should be buying it from a shady guy in a back alley. Anyway, I'm curious to see what others say. Edited January 20, 2021 by CT_ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Any sort of tropical fish food, especially a pelleted kind will work as they really don't need a special 'shrimp' food. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 4 hours ago, CT_ said: I just got my first shrimp today too. One guy I talked to said bacter ae is really good. Seems expensive at 16$ for 35grams though. For that price I feel like I should be buying it from a shady guy in a back alley. I use Bacter AE for my shrimp and it seems to be working well. Shrimp all seem healthy and active. That's my only barometer, since I don't actually see them eating the powder. I do agree that the cost is super high, but you use so little at a time that it should last a long time. 1 hour ago, Daniel said: Any sort of tropical fish food, especially a pelleted kind will work as they really don't need a special 'shrimp' food. I agree with this as well. If the shrimp are being housed with fish I would just overfeed the fish food slightly so the shrimp can scavenge. If they are being kept alone I don't mind splurging a little and getting a food made just for shrimp. I like invertebrates just as much as the fish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkG Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Bacter AE seems to be a food for the tank, so to speak, to produce mulm or whatever for (baby) shrimp. So they would not eat the powder as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 All my shrimp tanks get fed the same pellets and flake foods that I feed my fish. I will also throw a few green beans in when I feed my plecos green beans and I keep either catappa, guava, or mulberry leaves in the tanks at all times for them to graze off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I feed mine a piece of an algae wafer every couple of days, but the danios always get to it first. I guess the shrimp eat some pellets I put in for the fish. They're like kids, always wanting what the other one got. 😃 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Shrimp King has some good foods and Bactor AE is really good too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBOzzie59 Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Now and then I toss in a baby carrot or two for them to pick at. Also a good way to remove excess snails, attach a string to the carrot, let snails climb aboard then slowly lift and remove snails (cucumber and zucchini also work). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 4 hours ago, OceanTruth said: I like invertebrates just as much as the fish. I think I'll end up getting the same way. I only have five, so they're hard to find in my tank, but when I do it's pretty cool. So what I'm hearing is I probably have what I need which is great! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 4 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said: I keep either catappa, guava, or mulberry leaves in the tanks at all times for them to graze off. Do the leaves affect the tank water in any way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 20 minutes ago, KBOzzie59 said: Also a good way to remove excess snails, attach a string to the carrot, let snails climb aboard then slowly lift and remove snails (cucumber and zucchini also work). That's so smart! I'll try that when my bladder snails get out of hand. What do you do with the excess snails? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBOzzie59 Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 1 minute ago, Jennifer V said: That's so smart! I'll try that when my bladder snails get out of hand. What do you do with the excess snails? Drop them in the goldfish pond or a tank with loaches that like to eat snails. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I heard that since bacter ae coats surfaces the shrimp come out and forrage more. Has that also been anyone else's experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 1 hour ago, Jennifer V said: Do the leaves affect the tank water in any way? It will darken the water for a while until all the tannins leach out. Those tannins are supposed to be beneficial to the animal life in the tank however. It could lower your pH as well depending on your water parameters. I have hard, alkaline water and when I add botanicals it doesn't move my pH from 7.8 at all. Maybe if I went overboard with it, it might though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socqua Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 56 minutes ago, CT_ said: I heard that since bacter ae coats surfaces the shrimp come out and forrage more. Has that also been anyone else's experience? I bought 4 neo shrimp, one of which was berried. I've been using Bacter AE almost the entire time. I certainly noticed they like to come out soon after feeding Bacter AE. I don't know if it's the food, them getting more comfortable, or the fact that I now have 15 shrimp (it's only been a month or so), but they definitely come out a lot and I can see 10+ at any given time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 6 minutes ago, Socqua said: I bought 4 neo shrimp, one of which was berried. I've been using Bacter AE almost the entire time. I certainly noticed they like to come out soon after feeding Bacter AE. I don't know if it's the food, them getting more comfortable, or the fact that I now have 15 shrimp (it's only been a month or so), but they definitely come out a lot and I can see 10+ at any given time. That's exciting! I only have a few right now and can't find half of them in my tank so looking forward to bringing them out. What exactly is Bacter AE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socqua Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I don't know much more than the website says: https://www.glasgarten-aquarium.de/english/bacter_ae.html I think it's just a magic powder that helps develop good bacteria and biofilm for the shrimpies to eat! You can get it on Amazon too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 2 hours ago, Jennifer V said: That's exciting! I only have a few right now and can't find half of them in my tank so looking forward to bringing them out. What exactly is Bacter AE? From what I can read on the label it's sporulated bacteria (the names of the two they include are suspiciously similar to the yogurt bacteria) along with a few different forms of sugar and a few different peptides/proteins/amino acids. along with the sugars, and proteins are some enzymes that break the sugars and proteins down into smaller pieces that make it available to the bacteria. I presume that slows the release of the nutrients to try and prevent a big bacterial bloom of what ever is already in your tank. Aside from the facts on the label this is my educated speculation. From what I've read on the internet, if you use too much you do get bacterial blooms and they can suck all the oxygen from your water so you have to feed sparingly (and a fraction of what the label says). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 @CT_ oh wow. Ok then I think this newbie is going to stick to other kinds of food until I know what I'm doing. That's a whole lot of complication I don't think I should get into right off the bat. Thank you so much for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 12 minutes ago, Jennifer V said: @CT_ oh wow. Ok then I think this newbie is going to stick to other kinds of food until I know what I'm doing. That's a whole lot of complication I don't think I should get into right off the bat. Thank you so much for the info! That's probably best. I've been raising shrimp very successfully for almost a year without using it. I feed mine a couple kinds of commercial shrimp food, but they'll eat fish food just as readily. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 1/20/2021 at 11:47 AM, Jennifer V said: Do the leaves affect the tank water in any way? Not unless you put a bunch of leaves in. My shrimp tanks are all 10 gallons, I only put one or two leaves at a time, depending on how many shrimp are in the tank. The catappa leaves give the water a slight tint, but I havent seen any tint from the mulberry or guava leaves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 I like using Repashy Soilent Green and Community Plus, canned green beans and carrots, and sinking fish foods. If you are trying to raise lots of babies, I like adding catappa leaves and powdered fry foods. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 26 minutes ago, Irene said: powdered fry foods. What brand do you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 She better reply Aquarium Co-Op Easy Fry Food. Lol. Just kidding. 😛 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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