I've been having the problem lately of my pond snails out-competing my Red Cherry Shrimp for food. I have been feeding veggie pellets, algae wafers, the occasional flake food, and snail jello. The problem was, the pellets, wafers, and even the flake food sank to the bottom, where the snails had easy access to it. They'd crowd over to it, and pile on top 3, 4, even 6 snails deep, and any shrimp that came near got the butt wiggling action that effectively dislodged them.
My shrimp weren't starving, mostly because they could find and get to the food when I first dropped it in, but I started worrying about the babies. They're little, and I assumed that they need to eat often, like fish fry. Since I only feed my shrimp tank once a day, I figured the baby shrimplets were probably struggling a little.
I considered (and tried for a few days) using fish fry food for my shrimplets, but that seems to make the tank unnecessarily messy, and I had ammonia spikes a few times. I probably could have just tried less food 'til the ammonia didn't spike, but I have a hard time telling if the shrimplets are getting enough food.
So here's my low-tech solution, after seeing a squirrel safe bird feeder at the hardware store the other day. The design of the bird feeder was such that the squirrel had to climb up onto the perches to reach the openings to the seed, and when his weight fell on the perches, a spring loaded 'cage' covering would fall shut over the seed and block his access. As long as his weight was there, it would remain closed, but as soon as he gave up and left, it would spring open and the lighter weight birds could perch and feed.
So for my shrimp, I sprinkled 1mm pellet food in the java moss ball. Some of the smaller pond snails can make the long, tedious trip up through the java moss mess to the pellets, which mostly catch in the top inch of the moss. However, if too many snails climb on the moss, it collapses under their weight, distributing them all over, and not many near the food.
I've tried this a couple of times now, and it's still not perfect, and I am still overfeeding and causing an ammonia spike. But now I'm more confident in my solution, and I can experiment with it 'til I have the amounts right. I just wanted to share my revelation with you.
Of course, I could just do regular scoop'n'squish runs on my pondies and rams, but this idea is so much more elegant!
My shrimp weren't starving, mostly because they could find and get to the food when I first dropped it in, but I started worrying about the babies. They're little, and I assumed that they need to eat often, like fish fry. Since I only feed my shrimp tank once a day, I figured the baby shrimplets were probably struggling a little.
I considered (and tried for a few days) using fish fry food for my shrimplets, but that seems to make the tank unnecessarily messy, and I had ammonia spikes a few times. I probably could have just tried less food 'til the ammonia didn't spike, but I have a hard time telling if the shrimplets are getting enough food.
So here's my low-tech solution, after seeing a squirrel safe bird feeder at the hardware store the other day. The design of the bird feeder was such that the squirrel had to climb up onto the perches to reach the openings to the seed, and when his weight fell on the perches, a spring loaded 'cage' covering would fall shut over the seed and block his access. As long as his weight was there, it would remain closed, but as soon as he gave up and left, it would spring open and the lighter weight birds could perch and feed.
So for my shrimp, I sprinkled 1mm pellet food in the java moss ball. Some of the smaller pond snails can make the long, tedious trip up through the java moss mess to the pellets, which mostly catch in the top inch of the moss. However, if too many snails climb on the moss, it collapses under their weight, distributing them all over, and not many near the food.
I've tried this a couple of times now, and it's still not perfect, and I am still overfeeding and causing an ammonia spike. But now I'm more confident in my solution, and I can experiment with it 'til I have the amounts right. I just wanted to share my revelation with you.
Of course, I could just do regular scoop'n'squish runs on my pondies and rams, but this idea is so much more elegant!
