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feeding bamboo shrimp
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:09 am
by cj2379
It was recommended to me in a previous post I made that I should provide my shrimp with some supplementary food as they are living with quite a few tank mates. I went out to the pet store and searched around - looking for something really small that they would be able to hold on to. I picked up micro pellets (Hikari). It's a mix of 3 granules - 1 is animal origin protein, 1 is plant origin, and the other is for vitamins and minerals. The granules are really, really tiny and I've been releasing them directly into the current which sends them right to where my shrimp sit to filter food out of the water. I have been watching to make sure they catch some. Any other suggestions for supplementary food? This seems to be working pretty well and was the best thing I located in the store, but I'm always up for other ideas. Thanks!

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:39 am
by IndianaSam
Microworms are insanely easy to culture and would probably be a good supplement for your shrimp's diet.
PM if you'd like details about the culturing method that I use.
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:38 am
by Neonshrimp
You can feed them just about anything that can be crushed into smaller/powder size. Just grind up flake, pellet or freezed dried foods and feed to your shrimp.

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:06 am
by YuccaPatrol
Like neonshrimp, I use regular foods that I have crushed into powder.
Right now, my bamboos are eating a combination of freeze dried brine shrimp cubes and Omega-One flakes. I simply took the dust from the bottom of the nearly empty food cans and ground it as fine as I could. I'll add other flake dust to this as I empty other cans in my fish tanks.
Great info!
Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:56 pm
by cj2379
THANK YOU EVERYONE! It's always nice to get good suggestions/advice. Thanks a lot. I'll be trying to make sure my bamboo shrimp get the micro pellets and I'm also making sure to crush up some fish flakes when I feed my fish - just to make sure some gets to them. So far all 3 of them seem to be doing just great!

Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:43 pm
by carbon etc
Hikari First Bites is pretty easy to find in stores.
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 4:08 am
by Mordaki
i normally feed my fish some frozen bloodworm wich my amano shrimp like aswell

sone of the smaller bits may go to my bamboo and African Filter Shrimp but i doo add a tiny bit of flake powder aswell just after my fish have ate the bloodworm so my filter feeders get that.
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:38 am
by fishbone
First post!
Hello everyone, rather than starting up a new thread, I figured I'd post here.
Hikari First Bites. Are they adequate for feeding bamboos? I have a couple in a 10 gallon, I know, it's rather small, got them a while ago when I didn't know what I was doing. For the most part they feed at the strong current created by the pump but occasionally I see them scavenging on the bottom.
What other foods should I try feeding them? I'm thinking more along the lines of something I find around the house, potentially more nutritious than commercial food.
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:31 pm
by fishbone
Hope nobody minds me reviving this topic, but I thought I'd come back with some info for others that might happen to search for this.
I've successfully been feeding for a while now my bamboo shrimp Hikari First Bites and a product called ZoPlan by Two Little Fishies, which is basically zooplankton.
What I do is hidrate the food for a few minutes, then feed them with a dropper as they are perched up on a rock by the filter outflow. They seem to enjoy First Bites better, for some reason, but the ghost shrimp go crazy when they sniff that zooplankton, they start helicoptering all around

I do this about once every 3 days or so and ever since I've started doing this I haven't seen my bamboos scavenge for food on the substrate. The smaller one, which I assume is the male, is showing hints of dark red.
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:15 pm
by pixl8r
Cool idea.
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:40 pm
by Baby_Girl
I used to feed my bamboo with freeze-dried Cyclop-eze for zooplankton and Phytoplan (also by Two Little Fishies) as well. Thought I'd give him both his meat and veggies.

He did ingest them, I know from his HUGE poops. And I never once saw him scavenge for food on the bottom.
Whether he was able to actually assimilate those nutrients, I do not know. But I chose to use whole, freeze-dried plankton rather than prepared, processed fish fry foods because I figured food that was closer to 'natural' would better nourish him. He did seem to look quite healthy and happy and molted several times over a few months.
Unfortunately, he died from a horrible molt that left him with a large portion of flesh exposed
I hope yours lasts better than mine and you can tell us how the zooplankton supplementation went.
[edit: yippee, 100 posts for both me and pxl8r!

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