[TankPlanter]

New to feeding shrimp (until now, I've always let them just scavenge and clean my planted tank).

I bought mini hikari algae wafers to feed the shrimp. When I quartered them and put in the shrimp tank, a fight ensued and not everyone got some.

So I've crushed them up w a rolling pin very small and thought I'd put in a pinch weekly. Any concerns with that plan? Will the shrimp be able to find teensy pieces, or will they just foul the tank (Spec III)?

Thanks!

 

[Yukiharu]

Depends on your substrate, I think. In my tank with eco-complete the grains are like gravel so I wouldn't do it as the food would fall through and rot. In my other tank with sand I feel that would work just fine.

 

[TankPlanter]

Good thought. I have sand, should stay on top mostly... Thanks for the input.

 

[bsherwood]

I bought a couple of those glass petri dish things....keeps food from escaping....

 

[theatermusic87]

How many shrimp do you have and what kind? My cherry shrimp will churn through the top couple grains of sand looking for food (flake and sinking pellets from the other fish) and i've witnessed them literally rolling the mini wafers around the bottom of the tank before. As to not everyone getting some, to me it seems that you either have a lot of shrimp or are removing leftover food too soon. In my tanks (3 and 5 gallon) I feed DAILY 4-8 of the mini hikari wafers and that is just enough to maintain the population of 80-100 shrimp between the tanks. They usually have the mini wafers gone in a couple hours. If it's not gone by feeding time the next day, skip feeding and the day after feed 1 or 2 less wafers, the shrimp will eat the leftovers and it doesn't foul the water. Leaving the wafers in that long ensures that all the shrimp will get a share (they will eventually start to break them up as they become water logged. Also don't be surprised that not all the shrimp eat the wafers at the same time, i would say on average that 1/3 of the shrimp ignore them and continue grazing around the tank (i'm sure they make it to the wafers in due time though). Lastly shrimp make a great cleanup crew and algae workforce, but I HIGHLY recommend supplemental feeding if you want a large thriving population

 

[Yukiharu]

I agree that if you're feeding correctly there's no concern that the shrimp aren't eating, as I keep both tigers and neos and the tigers tend to bully the neos away from food, yet I know they both eat well as they are both breeding. Also, I crush hikari wafers for my neon tetras, and the crumbs have a tendency to float.

 

[TankPlanter]

Thanks for all the great input! OK, I can confirm that I'm now sold on supplemental feeding- and yep, as was said- the crumbs floated. That didn't work...

I only have about 10 very low grade red cherry shrimp in a 3 gallon at my son's preschool, and I'm trying to find a way to feed them that doesn't involve fierce fighting (and yes, the winner rolling the prize away) and most get fed. I haven't ever removed leftover food. Or seen any. But then, the tank has many pond snails and a small, horned nerite snail that would take it, and I'm not wanting to boost the pond snail population. Plus I've only fed them twice (they've been grazing on the java moss & subwassertang & driftwood).

@theatermusic87: I appreciate knowing that many won't immediately go for them. You say: "In my tanks (3 and 5 gallon) I feed DAILY 4-8 of the mini hikari wafers and that is just enough to maintain the population of 80-100 shrimp" So that's about 5 wafers x 7 days a week=35 wafers wk/80 shrimp, works out to about 4 wafers total a week for my 10 shrimp. So I should supervise while the kiddos feed two wafers twice a week.

Plan: Break into eighths, feed 2 wafers twice a week. Sound good (and low enough not to boost pond snails)?

Newbie Q as I now, with this new information, consider feeding the shrimp in my 20 gallon algae wafers:
Will they still clean the tank and eat the algae if they're well-supplemented?

Thanks!

 

["Got light?"]

Using a turkey-baster & cup of tank water....

I add BorneoWild Bebi & any powder supplement to cup then swish with baster for a few seconds to help the Bebi sink, then slowly/gently squirt the mixture onto substrate
(I turn filters off 5 minutes before feeding & filters back on 15-20 minutes after feeding)