feeding shrimp and fish

[daisy]

I though cleaner shrimp eat stuff off fish. You have to feed them additional stuff, too? And what is "feeding from my hand" exactly? I drop food into the tank and my fish eat it. I recently found a shrimp packet that is not frozen that you squeeze into the tank from a little tiny bag. The fish eat it right at the top of the tank from the bag which is in my hand. Does this count as "eating from my hand?"
Also, those of you who make your own fish food, what machine do you use to blend the food? How often do you prepare it, and do you freeze it or refrigerate it, serve it frozen or cold or room temp? Are there any types of seafood that should be left out of the mix?
Thanks!

 

[salisbury a d]

Yes you have to feed cleaner shrimp.!
I feed mine frozen krill from the store and it also eats the frozen brine shrimp I feed my fish.
The cleaner shrimp only picks diseases off of fish and not all fish will go to the shrimp for help. The only fish I have had go to my shrimp is the angelfish.
I recamend a good book. Please do not take that the wrong way. It is an offer to more help that I myself can not provide.
Adam

 

[wrassecal]

I have 2 cleaner shrimp and 1 fire shrimp. They eat what I feed the fish. I feed flake, frozen brine, plankton pellets and for fresh fish I go to Wal Mart in the fish section and buy a bag of frozen mixed fish that has shrimp, squid, octopus etc. The bag only costs $4 and lasts forever. I just take a frozen piece out and slice it really really small and thin and then soak it in garlic for an hour or so before I feed it. It only takes a little bit. Some people blend/chop it in a blender and then feed it. I think Beth keeps a blender just for that purpose and then makes little foil packets similar to what we get the cubed frozen brine in and that way you have it ready to go for quite a while. (I just wouldn't use the same blender for margaritas) HTH edit: cleaners only clean bacteria/parasites off fish. Mine only "clean" the dwarf angel and the yellow tang. Also, hand feeding I think just refers to if you have say a plankton pellet in your hand and stick your hand in there the cleaner shrimp will climb on your hand and get it.

 

[bang guy]

My shrimp (all 10) just get the leftovers from the fish.
For homemade food I have a blender just for making food. I add seafood, Selcon, Cod liver oil and some tank water. Blend it up so there are only a few big chunks. I pour the mixture into ziplock snack bags. Lay flat in the freezer until frozen then stack them out of the way.
To feed I just break off a chunk and toss it in. I'm sure it would be better to thaw before adding but I have a LOT of fish to feed.
Look at all the hungry mouths to feed:

 

[pyro383]

This is how I make my own food:
1 bag of misc. frozen fish @ supermarket (contents are squid, shrimp, clams, mussels)
1/2lb of fresh scallops
1 box of frozen spinach
1 box of frozen brocolli
1 box of frozen corn
flake food
seaweed selects
2 tablespoons of garlic
6 packets of plain gelatin
150 ml of water
Combine all ingredients except the gelatin and water. Use a blender and chop everything until you have a consistency close to mud. Not everything needs to be puree. You can have strands of fish and vegies. Next boil the water ro/di water and mix the gelatine in it. Then combine into the mix and blend. Then pour into pans or ice cube trays and freeze. As it becomes hard, score with a knife so that it can be snapped for smaller pieces when it becomes hard. This should yield 2 ice cube trays and a 9" pan @ 3/4" high. Should be at least 2 months of food. When it is time to feed, I pop a cube cut in half and I defrost in a cup of warm tap water and put into the clip that has the plastic net. The meat and veggies meet the needs of all fish and inverts.
My boxfish eats like a pig and the leftovers float around which the clowns then eat, whatever falls to the floor the snails and hermits eat along with the shrimp. The cloudiness of the puree is filter feeder food for the feather dusters and such.