Mysis v/s Spirulina Brine Shrimp

luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Okay, so I have read so many times that brine shrimp is worthless. I however, feed my fish a variety of Spirulina Brine shrimp mixed with Mysis Shrimp soaked in vitamins. Looking at the back of the packages, there is not much difference. They are the San Francisco Bay Brands.
Guaranteed Analysis Of SPIRULINA Brine Shrimp(contains brine shrimp, spirulina algae and carrageenan)
Crude Protein-4.0%
Crude Fat-0.6%
Crude Fiber-0.4%
Moisture-93.0%
Guaranteed Analysis of Mysis Shrimp(contains mysis shrimp, water, and guar gum)
Crude Protein-4.2%
Crude Fat-0.3%
Crude Fiber-0.5%
Moisture-93.5%
And so, since the boards are kind of boring lately, I thought we could discuss this.
My question is this: Should we keep saying that brine shrimp is worthless? Like I stated earlier, there is not much difference in these two anyway. Any thoughts? Am I missing something??
 
slice

slice

Active Member
I think that is a good question, hope we get some good answers. Do the Brine Shrimp show green in their bellies or is the Spirulina just in the mix?
Slightly unrelated, but similar:
I recently added Spirulina Mysis to the menu, Hikari brand. In cube form, it is green, but once rinsed, all I see are small Mysis; all the green seems to go down the drain.
I wonder if I am getting any benefit from the Spirulina.
The only difference I can tell from the regular Mysis is it is smaller and my LMB doesn't seem to like it as well ans the regular Mysis.
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
What kind of a net do you use Joe to rinse and thaw your cubes, I use a brine shrimp net little finer than the regular nets.
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Actually, I never really looked that close to see, but i will with todays feeding. I was hoping to get good responses as well. this question has plaqued me for awhile. I was wondering about the analysis of other brands too. And my mandarin eats both of these, but seems to prefer the brine. The only thing I do is rinse the frozen food first, in a cup, drain it before the cubes break apart, add my vitamins, and wait awhile then dump them in!
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Good Morning AL!
My net is a regular "fine mesh" net. Not sure how "fine" fine is, though.
Perhaps I should get a fine shrimp net as well. I will do that next trip to the store.
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
This is a good thread luvmyreef, I will be following along, your mandarin does eat brine and mysis, that is what I will be looking for. Joe, the nets are white in color really fine might stop the green stuff from being washed away.
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Thanks. My mandarin just started to eat the shrimp with all the others one day, and I was suprised. He has enough pods, but I just think he is a pig LOL!
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
My tank is about 13 months old, I have a hang on fuge - when I stir the cheato quite a few pods come out, I just want to make sure if I get a mandarin he/she will be OK.
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Seems to me it would be ok. As long as you have a refugium so that your pods can reproduce in peace lol, it should be fine. I have noticed before that small clowns, and my old royal gramma would eat the pods off the glass. Once the clowns got bigger they stopped, but not the rg! So, just be advised that some other fish like them too!
 
slice

slice

Active Member
I've never seen my RG eat any pods; I used to have a huge population. My Sixline, however, has wiped out the pods in the DT, as well as the small brittle stars and no doubt, a host of other critters I've never seen.
I have a HOB fuge where pods still survive...on borrowed time....
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Ok, to answer the earlier question, the spirulina brine shrimp appear to have dark green lines in them, so I am assuming its inside the belly/body. And seriously, where are the people who continuously say that brine shrimp isnt good to feed? I am really curious as to whether or not this is just a taboo. Is there any research or data that states the nutritional value of spirulina brine shrimp or mysis? Anything at all to back up what everyone keeps saying about it? Is it certain brands only?
 
slice

slice

Active Member
A quick google of "Brine Shrimp Nutritional Value" shows the first 4 hits saying if they are not used as food during the larval stage (first 8 hrs after the hatch), the nutritional value decreases to near nothing.
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slice http:///forum/thread/383093/mysis-v-s-spirulina-brine-shrimp#post_3347944
A quick google of "Brine Shrimp Nutritional Value" shows the first 4 hits saying if they are not used as food during the larval stage (first 8 hrs after the hatch), the nutritional value decreases to near nothing.
Well, I clicked on the first hit, and the guy writing has a phd, so good. After reading most of it, it says that the source of the brine shrimp determines the nutritional value more than other factors. and states that unenriched brine shrimp from san fran bay was equal to that of enriched shrimp from the great salt lakes. Then he adds this:
Well, I've been talking about enrichment throughout this article, but I haven't really given you any guidelines for how exactly to accomplish that enrichment. Let's use brine shrimp as an example, and go through how to enrich your food before feeding it to an aquarium. When Artemia nauplii first hatch (Instar I), they do not have a complete gut, and it is not until they develop to Instar II that the baby brine start to feed. The time of development to Instar II depends on a variety of factors (most importantly temperature, but also salinity), but occurs within 6 to 30 hours after hatching. At 28°C (roughly 82°F) it takes about 8 hours for the newly hatched nauplii to begin feeding, and as the temperature drops, that time becomes much longer. As soon as the nauplii hatch, they begin to digest their yolk and become less nutritious with time after hatching, however, once they reach the second instar, they can begin to feed, and you can enhance their nutritional value by feeding them a highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) supplement that provides high concentrations of essential fatty acids for the health of most marine animals (reviewed by Coutteau and Mourente 1997; Rainuzzo et al. 1997; Sorgeloos et al. 2001).
So it sounds like atleast from him that you can increase the nutritional value in the second stage. So maybe the spirulina brine shrimp has been enriched in this stage? Regardless, it sounds like (in this article) not all brine shrimp are that bad
And I only have spirulina brine shrimp and mysis to compare the labels, and both are san fran. bay brand. Not plain brine shrimp. Or even their baby brine shrimp with egg yolks.
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Well, there you go.
Kinda like potato chips. Plain ole potato chips are just that, but dip them in my wife's french onion dip and.....oh my....
 
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