shrimp as food

[hickernellc92]

iv been thinking about starting a population of shrimp like brine or mysid shrimp for my fish tanks. i have a 50 gal refug i could put them in but i don't really know how this works. would i just put them in and let them do everything or is it more complicated then that?

 

[Bifferwine]

I don't know about breeding mysis, but breeding brine shrimp isn't as easy as dumping them in a tank. You can't just use a 50 gallon refugium. Most people use a 2 liter soda bottle or something similar. You need an airstone as well (not a lot of flow), and you have to have a special filter or set up to separate the hatched shrimp from their egg shells. You can buy brine shrimp eggs at Petco or Petsmart, and you can buy the hatching set ups online.

It's a lot of work and I don't think it's worth it.

 

[little_fish]

+1 Biffy

Its very hard to culture mysid shrimp because they are cannibals and the adults will eat the young.

With brine you also have to enrich them before feeding them to the fish because they have hardly any nutritional value on their own. Its also a very smelly process.

You are probably better off just feeding frozen :)

 

[AmberSunrise]

I think it will be way more work than its worth its best to just buy frozen food and enrich it with vitamin powder like Vibrance

 

[Bifferwine]

I've done it before as a treat for my fish. It's fun to watch them hunt live food. But raising them for food all the time is work.