# How often does everyone feed their shrimp?



## bigduke45123 (Dec 26, 2008)

I have a tank full of cherry shrimp and also 6 bee shrimp, that I know I am over feeding. There is always leftover food in the bottom plus I also feed my fish some. I normally feed everyday when I get home from work, but am going to cut back to every other day. I want to see if that makes my shrimp eat what I give them faster, if not I will cut back a little more.


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

I feed probably once a week. But I usually overfeed when do feed so it lasts them some time. Not good and I dont really do it on purpose lol. Id say if you feed just enough for them to eat it all within a few hours then its enough. And then feed every other day to every couple of days. But that also depends on how established your tank is too.


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## bigduke45123 (Dec 26, 2008)

tank is established fairly good and there are a lot of plants with some alge on them. my cherrys are always grazing and don't touch what I feed them most of the time.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Feed twice a week and remove what they don't finish in 2-3 hours.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

I feed inconsistently. Sometimes it's everyday for several days, then every couple days, really just whenever I think about it. I don't feed much. Usually one Jake's veggie stick or a couple shrimp pellets or about an 1/8 of a cube of frozen bloodworms which is actually intended for the crayfish, but the shrimp jump all over it. There usually isn't anything left when the shrimp are done and what is left over the snails clean up. My tank is a 75g tank that is moderately planted and has been running since September so there is also plenty of biofilm and algae for the shrimp to pick at.


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## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

Once every three days for me.


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## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

I've got a lot of shrimp in my CRS tank so I feed daily, but only as much as they can finish in about an hour.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

1 time a week in a shotglass. 
Enough biofilm and moss to gaze on.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

I feed generally every 2 days... but I think I'm going to switch to every 3 days.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Once every two days since my tank is pretty saturated with RCS. My other tank that has less shrimp gets fed once every three days.

Also, I feed a little extra before I leave for weekends . In that case they get no food for 4-5 days.


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## NWehrman (Jun 2, 2011)

I feed daily but my colony is huge! Need to thin -- they eat everything (1 algae cube or 10 shrimp pellets) in less than 20 minutes. Some days I even feed twice a day - light on 14 hrs too. There are hundreds of shrimp and 2 ABN plecos in tank. I do skip meals occasionally also - but they start eating the anacaris if I do so too much....so I started feeding daily. Tank looks like a jungle right now with pennywort; anacaris; guppy grass - and a few others .... 

Major rescape and tank change on their horizon! Moving up from 10g to 20L this week! Changing substrate also.


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## splur (Nov 26, 2011)

Not very often, maybe once a week?


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

It really depends on the tank. My amanos are ravenous at all times. I could feed them every 20 minutes. The other shrimp in the same tank are interested in food but not so crazy. I skip every 3rd day on that tank. I have a cherry tank in my basement where it is currently 40 degrees. They haven't been fed in 2 weeks.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

40 degrees? What's the water temp? I was thinking of setting up a breeding rack in my basement but it's little more than a cellar (part of it still has dirt floor) and it gets pretty cold down there. Of course I would have heaters in the tanks but they would be on all the time to keep up. Might be good though if I ever decide to try some of the cooler water types as it would certainly be easy to keep the water temps down.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

If the surrounding temp is 40F then the water can't be different from a few degrees. Shrimp will survive on bio film. In temps that low I doubt they'll survive for long but their metabolism will be super slow which means that their eating habits will be barely any...


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## RandomMan (May 31, 2011)

I feed a tiny amount of Shirakura Baby Shrimp Food every day. Maybe 1/5 the recommended dosage since its supposed to actually help build the microscopic food shrimp eat in the tank. 

Then I feed 3-4 times a week using more typical shrimp food. I rotate between Ken's pellets, ADA Red Bee Food, and various other "Square" shrimp foods. I only leave the food in for a few hours, and then pull it out to keep it from polluting the tank, since that seems to be recommendation in the instructions for every shrimp food, regardless of brand. Since the square dissolve so slowly I just pull them out with foreceps. 

If I feed blanched vegetables I usually put it in right before bed and pull it out the next morning.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

OKay .. I must be totally overfeeding ....

For three shrimp I was giving 2 pieces of the hikari shrimp cuisine daily. To be fair it was gone every day.

For 5 babies I was dong 3-4 pieces of the hikari shrimp food daily, again all pieces appear to be gone the next day.

Both are tanks that are less than a month old though ... sooo had this feeling that biofilm might not be so prevalent yet.

The cherries and yellows I feed several pieces a day to, but they always seem to eat it all ...


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

The food being gone could also because it's just crumbled. Not necessarily eaten....


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Feed shrimp? Haha. I almost never feed mine. Well... I shouldn't say that since I found some shrimp cusine tablets  

But honestly, my shrimp would be fine without food. They are scavengers. They eat fish poop, dead plants, and leftover flake food.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

I wish they'd eat their own poop. I just tore down my 20T shrimp tank because I set up a 40B for them...I had NO idea such little critters could poop so much. It was all over the substrate in piles, literally in piles.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

jkan0228 said:


> The food being gone could also because it's just crumbled. Not necessarily eaten....


Possible but when I drop in one veggie stick broken into thirds and I have 20+ shrimp and a bunch of snails all over it and it disappears within a couple hours, I think it's safe to say it was eaten.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

They poop so much because you feed them so much. Or because of inadequate flow. Many possibilities.


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

My shrimp tank with galaxy danios gets feed lightly almost everyday I skip a few days. In this tank I have the danios an few dwarf Cory cats and rams horn snails. So I don't ever find left over food.

My shrimp only tank gets fed very little every other day. I give just enough so most shrimp will find some but others might not. 

I think a little bit of food fed more often is best.


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

With enough bio-films, I feed mines every 2 days. Switch around with different type of brand food.


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## Buff Daddy (Oct 19, 2010)

Generally every other day... but I do give "holiday meals" like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc...


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## Moe (Jan 22, 2004)

I usually feed mine everyday, always something different. very now and again I skip a day or two.


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## wayneside (Jun 17, 2008)

I barely feed them...there are plenty of moss and other plants and they seem to be just fine.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

I feed maybe twice a week, there's other stuff for them to graze on with the plants/leaves but even the twice a week they share the tank with a big group of boraras and snails. 

Either a tiny pinch of flakes, single NLS H20 wafer, few shrimp pellets or a small pinch of NLS pellets.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

I've been overfeeding, I feed my fish with NLS micro pellets, and Azoo Max Growth 2 square pieces everyday. For a while I was carelessly feeding(even though the shrimp eventually ate it all within a day), a snail and planaria problem developed. I now feed much less, just twice a week for both fish and shrimp. I see much less snails and planaria now.

If you overfeed, just be careful of pest infestation.


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## fresh.salty (Jul 2, 2010)

My 3g with RCS gets one sinking pellet daily.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

I actually feed every 3 days or so with either mosura specialty food or shrimplabs shrimpball cuisine , but I supplement with different supplements on the 2 days in between(BW crimson/white, Gravidas, tonicpro, ebiken EI) with very good results. Just gotta keep the tds in check which isn't hard at all, I water change once a week or so to keep it around ~150.


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## gerrard00 (Jun 24, 2011)

My 10g RCS tank is my low effort tank. I feed about a 1/4 of an algae wafer a week. If I'm bored and want to watch them pig out, I'll drop a tiny piece of spinach or cucumber for a second feeding.


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## ch3fb0yrdee (Oct 2, 2008)

I feed my shrimp tanks from Monday - Friday with a break Saturday and Sunday. I alternate between feeding them Shirakura Special, Mosura Excel, and blanched leafy greens.

I have green algae on the glass, moss and plants for them to graze as well.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Every few days when I remember. Dose some bioplus and gravidis in the meantime or when I remember. Lots of mosses in my tank and most of my walls are covered in fine green algae that they stick on.


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## bigduke45123 (Dec 26, 2008)

Well since starting this post I have gone to every two days now and only a little bit at a time. I do have algae on the glass and some on the plants so I know that they are not starving. I liked watching them come running when I did feed everyday, but it is also nice just to watch them grazing around. Thanks for everyone's comments.


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## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

about 3 - 5 times per week. i switch between various foods


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