How Do You Feed Your Shrimps

euphoria

euphoria

Active Member
First of all, do shrimps need to be spotfed, or will they find their food by scavenging and eating leftovers?
If they have to be spotfed, how do you guys do it and do you feed them every day? I've tried dropping stuff in there for them to eat, but my faster fish eat them before the shrimp even get a chance to smell the food.
So far the only method that worked is if I stick my hand inside the tank and take the food near the mouth of the shrimp. Then they come and grab it off my fingers. If there's a better way, I prefer to know, cuz I don't like to stick my hand in the tank every day.
 
euphoria

euphoria

Active Member
ok, so I shouldn't bother feeding them? Cuz I read that the coral banded shrimp (I have one) has a big appetite and should be fed twice a day, whereas I feed my tank once a day and I'm worried he may not get much leftovers to survive on.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
There is no harm in spot feeding them if you feel it is neccessary, I have the opposite problem, my cleaner shrimp are the first thing to go after food, and I have to spot feed them first so they don't steal food from my corals.
 
euphoria

euphoria

Active Member
Well mine try for the food, but they can't get a hold of it. They just jump around all over the place and float in water for a few seconds and come down to land emptyhanded :) My fish are too fast for them.
 
spline9

spline9

Member
If you dont like sticking your hands in the tank, I've seen acrylic feeding sticks that you skewer food onto to target feed. I dont recall who the manufacturer is but its a good idea. They are acrylic so it's invisible (or so the manufacturer claims) to the fish. That probably makes no difference to your shrimp since you say he takes food from your hand. In that case, you can probably just use a bamboo shish-kabob stick. You can get large packs of them for cheap (couple bucks for 100) in the ethnic section of your grocery market. I think they are normally 10" but you might be able to find longer ones.
 
euphoria

euphoria

Active Member
ya but how am I going to screw a thin piece of silversides or mysis shrimp on the end of that stick and manage to feed it to the shrimp? The minute I put my hand in the tank to handfeed the shrimp, my fish, especially my clown, just come pick the food from my fingertips.
They got no more fear of me anymore :D
 
spline9

spline9

Member
How about getting some acrylic tubing? A hose thats just a tad too small for the fish to get into. That way your shrimp can reach his arms in there, if not fit in, and grab the food.
 
belothsurf

belothsurf

Member

Originally posted by ViPeR_930
They will find their own food.
Shrimp are scavengers, and will always fight for food. They'll eat the leftovers, so I wouldn't worry about "feeding" them. As long as you are feeding your fish, you should be fine. When I "don't" see my Peppermint shrimp come out in the open scrapping for food, tell's me I'm overfeeding.
HTH.....:happyfish
 
spline9

spline9

Member
You are right belothsurf. I've forgotten about the original question to this post.
The only reason why I hand feed my cleaner is to distract him so he doesnt steal food from the others who cant fend for themselves. He's quite the greedy mofo.
 
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