freshwater shrimp

[TurtleNfish]

On a hunch, I'm posting here, since I guess shrimp are bottom feeders. What, exactly, do shrimp eat?

I've found they like carrots, but I can't feed them carrots every day. They don't like spirulina. The other sinking food I've found in the pet store is shrimp pellets, but I think it CONTAINS shrimp, it's not for FEEDING TO shrimp. They like fish (they eat the slow guppies they can catch).

I'm actually trying to limit the number of fish they go fishing for, since I'm raising the guppies for turtle food, but I can't think of what they'll eat. Does anyone else have pet shrimp?

~L

[tomm10]

Shrimp don't really need to be "fed" anything really. At least, not regularly. They will scavange the bottom for left over food and steal whatever they can when you feed the rest of the tank. I haven't found anything my shrimp WON'T eat. they love shrimp pellets too. They grab them and drag them away to feast on them. Sick maybe but then they are scavengers.

If you have Amano shrimp they will also eat algae. Ghost shrimp tpically won't though.

Tom

[valerie]

What sort of shrimp do you have? I have never heard of a ghost or amano shrimp being able to catch and eat guppies.

If you talking about ghost or amano shrimp i jsut feed mine what ever i feed the rest of the tank. Flakes, sinking algae tabs, shrimp pellets, carnivour pellets, frozen brine and blood worms and any sort of veggies i throw in the tank for the plecos.

[OldVamp]

If they are catching and eating fish it sounds like you may have a crayfish or lobster ;)

[TurtleNfish]

Two of them are now very dead shrimp. I found them on Friday in the tank out in the open, not hiding like usual, and they were opaque. I prodded em and - nada - they were goners.

I just found the third one today when I was cleaning the tank. He (I'm picking a pronoun, don't know the gender) had taken up residence in a different part of the tank; he used to hide under the filter but moved into one of the decorative ship pieces, probably after the other shrimps died. For the time being, I'll leave him there unless he causes trouble.

The pet shop says they were vietnam shrimp; never heard of this kind, and can't find any reference on the web. The shrimp were not at all like ghost shrimp. They had huge claws, almost like lobsters. I think they may be chameleon shrimp (Macrobrachium pilimanus). Well, anyway, Prince said they were yummy. My turtle, the gourmet. hehe.

~L

[RTR]

Macrobrachium shrimp will eat any fish thay can catch. There are hundreds of species, so an ID at the species level is difficult. The ones I have kept range in size from small cocktail shrimp size up to well over a foot body length. The smaller species can co-exist with their own kind in tanks with lots of rockwork &/or plants, each develops their own refuge spot. The big ones, M. rosenbergii and the Peruvian/Equadorian "giants" need large tanks for a single specimen. They will eat just about anything. I use largely pellets including Hihari crab pellets and shrimp pellets and Tetra bits (a carnivore pellet). Most of the Macrobrachium species require brackish water for successful breeding and are not easy to breed in tanks for me.

http://southcenters.osu.edu/aqua/intro/sld013.htm

None of mine made to that size. :rolleyes:

[jacblades]

how big of a tank does a foot long shrimp require? thats a lotta shrimp

[RTR]

My M. rosenbergii was alone in a 50, and was severely underhoused, even though not as large as the one pictured on that aquaculture site URL I posted. If I ever keep it again I'll use at least a75.

Really weird and "alien" critters at that scale - very sci-fi.

[DiN BLiX]

I have 15+ ghost shrimp in my 29 gal, they eat everything on the bottom even fish crap. My wifes Leoperd frog loves em. great for cleaning, great for feeding.

[ChicoRaton]

<puffs out his lower lip>

I hear them vietnam's is good shrimp.