# Best frozen Brine shrimp



## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

I'm looking for a good quality frozen brine shrimp.:help:

Cubes sure are handy but not that important, and I'm just looking for the brine shrimp not added spirulina or anything like that....

I think I have been using Sally's and that was pretty good.

I just bought a pack of Aquarium Adventure's store brand. 
--This stuff makes me think that this stuff is all the leftover brine shrimp bits and pieces at the bottom of the barrel when they get done making Sally's brand. Lots of just 'stuff' and murky water with this brand.

I've used one cube and will try another today.

I heard Omega One is the best???:confused1:


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

I am using H2OLife and I find it to be very good.


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## mr.bigglesworth (Jul 6, 2012)

Just a warning about brine shrimp, NEVER use it as a staple in dieting, unless your feeding baby brine shrimp to baby fish, adult brine shrimp is the nutritional equivalent to iceberg lettuce and actually cannot sustain a fish permanently on a diet of solely brine shrimp. Fish will starve to death after 6months to a year on a diet of nothing but brine shrimp. Brine shrimp is renouned in saltwater fishkeeping as good to entice fish that are very picky eaters, but after successfully getting the picky fish to eat,they should be immediately weened off of the stuff for something more nutritious like mysis shrimp, bloodworms, or pellets/flakes.


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## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

Freeze Dried
Brine Shrimp
Protein 40.0%, Fat 9.0%, Fiber 4.0%, Moisture 8.0%, Ash 23.0%.
Bloodworms
Protein 58.0%, Fat 5.0%, Fiber 2.0%, Moisture 4.0%.

NLS Cichlid
Protein 34% Min., Fat 5% Min., Fiber 5% Max., Ash 9% Max., Moisture 10% Max.

I don't know looks pretty good to me. Maybe not as a sole source of food but part of a good diet.

I don't want to side track my own thread but....
Some people will only feed pellets and others only flake, some only frozen and some only live....

Most of the fish we keep either eat a lot of plant matter in the wild, like algae, or small bugs and tiny water creatures. I feed mine a good quality flake, frozen brine shrimp, and live whiteworms that are fed a nutritious meal first.

Most of the flake and pellets contain a lot of binders, wheat, gluten, rice, soy, etc and a lot of fish, tons of fish. I have never even kept a fish in my tank that is a piscivore.

But here is a list of NLS ingredients, I'll highlight suspect items (except vitamins)
Krill Meal, Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Amino Acids, Algae Meal, Soybean Meal, Fish Oil, Beta Carotene, Spirulina, Vitamin A Acetate, D-Activated Animal- Sterol (D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Folic Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine, Biotin.

Of the six main ingredients 3 are pretty suspect, not even sure what 'amino acids' actually is??

Anyhow brine shrimp are great source of chitin, sort of like fiber for fish and a great natural source of food. 
somewhere I read that flakes and pellets are like living your whole life on power bars, multi vitamins and metamucil. Frozen fish food is like eating frozen veggies and and what not, a lot better but still not nearly as good as fresh. 

I would guess any fish fed only one type of food(other than flake or pellets) would suffer after 6-12 months. But I must also question the general husbandry practices of someone who only gives their fish brine shrimp for 6-12 months, do they change the water ever, correct temp, tankmates etc.


So why do I still feed flake? 
I can't raise a bunch of varieties of live food in my apartment, whiteworms are a big enough pain. 
Cost, frozen food is expensive for what you get
Variety, A powerbar/multivitamin is probably a good idea, just in case the other foods you eat are lacking in something.

*Where is this rant going anyway??*

Brine shrimp, IMO, are a great source of food if fed daily or as a treat. There is no reason to ween fish off them, unless it is just to get them to eat a larger variety of food and then re-introduce them later.



mr.bigglesworth said:


> Just a warning about brine shrimp, NEVER use it as a staple in dieting, unless your feeding baby brine shrimp to baby fish, adult brine shrimp is the nutritional equivalent to iceberg lettuce and actually cannot sustain a fish permanently on a diet of solely brine shrimp. Fish will starve to death after 6months to a year on a diet of nothing but brine shrimp. Brine shrimp is renouned in saltwater fishkeeping as good to entice fish that are very picky eaters, but after successfully getting the picky fish to eat,they should be immediately weened off of the stuff for something more nutritious like mysis shrimp, bloodworms, or pellets/flakes.



My above post is not directed at you, just the idea that brine shrimp have no nutritional value


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

I buy the combination stuff so they get a mix of different things every day. Right now I feed the following:

50/50 Plus - blood worms, brine shrimp, and mysis
Spirulina Special Mix - spirulina, brine shrimp, and mysis
Daphnia - daphnia

Add the following to the 20 min soak in distilled water:

1 drop of Kent Garlic Xtreme per cube
2 drops of Astaxanthin per cube


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## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

gus6464 said:


> I buy the combination stuff so they get a mix of different things every day. Right now I feed the following:
> 
> 50/50 Plus - blood worms, brine shrimp, and mysis
> Spirulina Special Mix - spirulina, brine shrimp, and mysis
> ...



what brand are you liking the best?


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## mr.bigglesworth (Jul 6, 2012)

dprais1 said:


> Freeze Dried
> Brine Shrimp
> Protein 40.0%, Fat 9.0%, Fiber 4.0%, Moisture 8.0%, Ash 23.0%.
> Bloodworms
> ...


Maybe I was wrong. You mind if I copy and paste this over to the reef forums so this misinformation doesn't spread further?


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

dprais1 said:


> what brand are you liking the best?


Those are all H2O Life. I have used SF Bay in the past and that wasn't bad either. I went with the H2O because of the multiple mix per cube. When I feed the 50/50 Plus my tetras will first go for the brine and mysis and then devour the bloodworms. They put quite a bit of bloodworms in the tiny cubes too.

I used to do dry foods for freshwater in the past but when I had my reef tank I was introduced to frozen and can't go back now. My clowns were fat and healthy and the astaxanthin really brought out their colors. They never got sick either.


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## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

mr.bigglesworth said:


> Maybe I was wrong. You mind if I copy and paste this over to the reef forums so this misinformation doesn't spread further?



Of course, I would be interested on their take as well.

I know well known discus breeders, rainbowfish breeders etc that feed brineshrimp daily or at least often


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## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

bump.

what is the best frozen brine shrimp?


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## pantherspawn (Dec 21, 2011)

The best would be hatching and feeding your own before then freezing.. But I use hikari frozen foods with no issues.


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Jan 16, 2013)

There's a ingredient in NLS thats actually pretty bad, and i forget what it is though i mentioned it a long time ago. Anyways if you can figure it out through your own research maybe you can remind me haha, but your right there is suspect stuff in it. I just try to give a variety of everything to my fish as i'm skeptical of the actual benefits of using a certain one product based on just it's listed ingredients, not to mention preservatives put in dry foods in general. I tend to be more on the organic side when i can. The food subject is, and will always be a debate. I find best is to just find what the needs of a particular fish are, and try to give them just that, their needs.

Also any foods that promote color enhancements can easily fool you as well. It's like putting makeup on something ugly, and making it look good. Dosnt mean it's healthy.


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## dprais1 (Sep 12, 2012)

Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

is in many fish foods and is a carcinogen, at what doses ?? and do fish live long enough for it to really be a problem ??. but i don't see it listed for NLS, which is good.
I know omega one uses it, and I use omega one

I returned the store brand brine shrimp and got some Hikari brand. 

the shrimp are smaller than the other two brands I've tried and more red, there appears to be less water and more shrimp mass.

I'll try some omega one at some point and compare.


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