My shrimp feasting on 1/2 a mulberry leaf...

2267 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Soothing Shrimp, Apr 5, 2014

ChadO

Discussion Starter · Apr 4, 2014

For those curious about mulberry leaves, thought I would post a pic from my tank.

This is taken 24 hours after the leaf was introduced. I knew there were some always on it, but I hadn't really noticed just how busy the feeding site stayed long term. The shrimp stay like this on it until it is fully consumed. For reference, there are probably about 120 adult mischling shrimp in this tank, and around 40 of them are berried as of last weekend.

So, that brings up a question for those using the mulberry leaves: are you treating them as food (i.e. part of their main diet) or are you treating it as something you add from time to time - supplement like - but still feed them other food if you have a leaf in the tank? I don't want to overfeed, but given the number of adults in the tank, and those that are actively carrying babies, I just want to make sure they are getting solid nutrition. The tank does have a decent amount of moss in it as well, so they do have full-time grazing surfaces.

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bostoneric

· #2 · Apr 4, 2014

Nice review Chad. Glad you are happy with your order!

I tend to use them as supplements to all the other foods I feed and only feed half a leaf at a time like you do in your photo. These ones tend to be large.

unlike IAL leaves which are ok to leave in forever and the shrimp will consume down to the spine, my shrimp will even eat the spine of the mulberry leaves.

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MsNemoShrimp

· #3 · Apr 5, 2014

When I put FRESH home grown leaves in, they don't swarm them like that. They eat them from time to time. Takes a week for them to eat it all. Weird :/

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Kntry

· #4 · Apr 5, 2014

What other types of leaves should I put in the tank? I'm new to this and didn't know I should be giving the shrimp anything other than moss, algae and fish flakes.

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ChadO

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 5, 2014 (Edited)

The other largely popular leaves are the Indian Almond Leaves. They go in your tank and slowly break down. They are said to provide anti-bacterial properties for the water. They also provide a nice biofilm for shrimp to graze on. The mulberry leaves, by contrast, are consumed at a much faster rate. In my case, a 1/2 leaf as pictured will make it about 48-60 hours before it is totally consumed without a trace.

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Soothing Shrimp

· #6 · Apr 5, 2014

Depends how many shrimp though. I'll put a 12" Mulberry leaf in my Malawa shrimp tank and it is gone by the next day. Doesn't matter if fresh or dried.

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