Uh-oh

775 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by oblongshrimp, Jul 20, 2007

SearunSimpson

Discussion Starter · Jul 19, 2007

I purchased some HBH brand "Crab and Lobster bites" as a food for my shrimps for a really good price, but I didn't read the ingredients and I had already given some to my shrimp. The package said it was great for crustaceans and what not, blah blah, but one of the ingredients in it is copper sulphate, along with zinc sulphate. Both of those sound sorta scary for them. Did i make a bad choice? I am not feeding them alot, as there is enough micros and detritus for them to feed on on the java and various other decor, so im only adding a few pieces every few days (each piece is the size of a grain of rice, so three grains of rice every few days). I just remember knoing that copper isn't good for shrimp.

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jake

· #2 · Jul 19, 2007

I used to feed shrimp that all of the time. It's not just "copper" that is bad for them... it's excess copper. There is copper in most any trace fertilizer, for example, and it does nothing to shrimp if not ridiculously overdosed.

What I would worry about more is that there is a recall on HBH "Crab and Lobster Bites".

http://www.avma.org/aa/petfoodrecall/products.asp

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oblongshrimp

· #3 · Jul 19, 2007

I second what jake said. I feed all my shrimp HBH sometimes and have yet to see any problems. The only time you are likely to run into a problem is when you are medicating the tank with something that has copper in it.

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fishscale

· #4 · Jul 19, 2007

It was included on that recall list with the same stuff in the cat/dog food.

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SearunSimpson

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 19, 2007

Yup, just checked my little contain of HBH and the product code matches. Though, do you think the 3 grains of rice every once in a while will really effect them? I don't know how Melanine (sp?) works, so im not sure if it will probs be fine and not to fret, or if I should scrap it or return it. The only problem is that no where near here sells anything crustacean or crab specific. The closest things my LFS sells are algae wafers and I already have that. I just want to be able to vary my diet. I do find though that my RCS love bloodworms and it makes them go nice and red.

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bsmith

· #6 · Jul 20, 2007

i have been tirelessly trying to answer the same question about the copper. i have concluded imo, that as long as your not going crazy with foods that contain copper youll be fine, infact you would have to feed them sooooooo much of any food that has copper in it that youll probly kill the shrimp because of water quality issues (i.e. nitrate, nitrite, ammonia poisoning)instead of copper.

i have been feeding mine wardly shrimp pellets, aqueon algea wafers, with no ill effectand they all have copper in them.

again this is how i feel.

B

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A Hill

· #7 · Jul 20, 2007

It may be fine it may not be. In the breeding RCS or CRS there was a big discussion on this.

I think they would be fine for hardy shrimp, but wouldn't chance it on delicate ones like CRS...

-Andrew

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oblongshrimp

· #8 · Jul 20, 2007

I have feed my high grade RCS the HBH brand "Crab and Lobster bites" and they are breeding happily. I don't always feed them this food, I rotate between that, mosura, that other CRS food, and Rains biscuits.

Also just as a note the first ingredient on the package makes up the greatest % of the product and so on down the line. Copper, when present, is usually one of the last ingredients meaning it is probably a tiny tiny tiny portion of the product.

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