How do I know when I need to feed the shrimp?

[TomFromStLouis]

I have 3 young SAEs and 29 Amano shrimp in my heavily planted 75g. The shrimp are rarely out in daytime and have cleared up all the thread algae that had me panicked a couple weeks ago. Since I have no other scavengers, I figured they could fill this role too, but maybe I should be dropping in an algae pellet every once in a while. the snail explosion also seems to be abating a bit, again suggesting that I am getting thorough scavenging from the crew.

I feed the angels heavily but they are good about scouring the gravel for any bloodworms that dropped. Flake food bits do find the bottom once in a while though. Any thoughts?

[OrionGirl]

I feed my algae crew with each feeding (I feed every other day). My amano's will steal an algae tab and share it with the herd. I would go ahead and feed your crew once or twice a week. If you start seeing algae issues, cut it back a bit until you have it in balance.

[TomFromStLouis]

Good answer. So I am browsing BigAl's just to see what these algae tabs look like.

Are these some candidates?

* OSI Spirulina Nibblers (under 'Pellets - Specialty')
* Anything under 'Pellets - Spirulina'
* Hikari Spirulina under 'Pellets - Pond'

What exactly is spirulina?

[OrionGirl]

Spirulina is a micro-algae, very nutritious. It's peddled as a miracle supplement for people, as well as being a good addition to the diet of most fish.

I like Hikari, and MarineLabs algae tabs. They are well liked by most of my critters--heck, even the african frog will go after them.

[SomethingFishy]

some brands, including Hikari, call them algae wafers. If that helps you find them.
HTH
Virginia