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To Feed or Not to Feed

929 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  pink4miss, 
Asu1776
Hi all,

New to the CRS hobby and had questions about feeding.

Question 1) I fed my shrimps yesterday with Mosura bioplus which I received from the seller. Shrimps are still juvies, so figured they could use some food boost. They were happy and grazing for a few minutes after feeding, but then subsequently started to swim around like crazy and near the surface. YIKES. This is not the first time it's happened, so I learned to not freak out and let them (and myself) calm down. Any ideas why they'd do that? I noticed that this happened as well when I fed them standard algae wafers (no copper in them, or else they'd be dead by now). No casualties this morning, params are all good, and they are back to slowly grazing.

Question 2) Perhaps the more pertinent question, I have 25 juvies in a 3 gallon nano tank with moss, anubias, crypts, and java fern. I'm wondering if I even need to be feeding them or if they can survive on biofilm for a bit longer. Was thinking about adding some IAL (after I leech out the majority of the tannins).

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback.
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O
Sounds like they were swimming around because they were hungry and going after the food. Whenever I feed my 40gal breeder tank full of CRS the whole take erupts in activity with the shrimp swimming around to try and find the food. When I feed Mosura Bioplus or another powdered food they often swim upside-down at the top and try and pick pieces of food off the surface.

If they swarm the food then it is a good idea to feed them. If they ignore it then you don't need to feed them.
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Asu1776
Does that mean that the shrimps can smell the food in the water? For some reason, everytime they swim around like that, I think that I may have inadvertently introduced some toxin into the water.

However, if I feed them algae wafers in a petri dish, they seem to swim around all over the tank, but few actually find the food. If they were hungry, wouldn't they swarm to the food?
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C
Yeah, they pick up on the food fast - at least mine sure do. Something clues them in. I don't use algae wafers, so don't know how they respond to them. All of my pellet and snowflake food get swarmed right away. They might need a bit of time to get used to the algae wafers as food to them.
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AquaAurora
Not trying to hijack the thread but I'm also new to shrimp and tried algae wafers.. twice, they never ate any of it, have to remove it after a few hours to avoid fouling water.
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Asu1776
Thanks for the feedback guys. I know there are a lot of variables to consider, but, in your opinion, in a decently planted 3 gallon tank with 25 CRS, do you think I need to supplement feeding all that much?
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ravensgate
They swim because of attractants in the food generally. It's a powder so they are trying to catch it. Also, it will crank the TDS up quickly if you use too much so sparingly is the key with ANY powdered food or supplement.
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C
You might try a sample pack from someone in the For Sale section. Almost anyone selling food there offers sample food packs. A good way to find a food that is popular with your colony. Also, with a smaller colony and tank, a sample pack might last you a while. I'd still probably feed once a week or so as that will give them a well rounded variety in their diet.
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Asu1776
Yes, that's what I was thinking. Tried some pellets I received from a seller a long time ago. The shrimps don't really seem to care for it in particular. I've been seeing Jake's nom nom shrimp feed in the FS section. Supposed I'll give it a try.
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pink4miss
my shrimp go crazy for Jakes barley logs and veggie calcium logs.. and the sinking betta pellets i feed the betta. kind of funny how the betta lays on the food while he's eating like he's trying to keep the shrimp from running off with it. the shrimp still grab some and run off
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