Shrimp tale – Episode Nine -Shrimp Food & DIY Recipe

#Episode_Nine #Shrimp_tale

TOPIC: SHRIMP FOOD

So today we are going to discuss what to feed shrimps and in the end I will be sharing a diy recipe which I personally use to feed my shrimps at times. That recipe will actually widen up your view about how you may use other household items for making shrimp food keeping the basic idea same at the core.

Feeding shrimp is one of the easiest things one needs to be bother about but at times a wrong food or a large quantity of the same food makes it harmful.

Shrimps are omnivorous bottom feeders by nature so they will eat anything they can get hold of at the bottom of the tank. If it is edible be sure they will eat it !! Be it dead decomposing leaves, dead fish, other dead shrimps and even fish & snail poop.

Some people dont even feed their shrimps in the fish tanks and that makes sense in a smaller colony because some of the fish food will eventually bt missed by the fish and shrimps are fast in finding that out. And yes the fish poop does suffice as well.. so its like you feed the fish and fish feeds the shrimp.. a bit gross, yes..but that’s true Even in heavily planted tank shrimp pretty much have a lot to feed on.. so adding extra food is perhaps unnecessary. But then if you are breeding shrimps with a certain goal on mind with respect to colour and breed purity you will be most often keeping shrimps in a shrimp-only-tank with less plants so that you csn cull as needed. And yes you will need to feed your shrimps time to time.

How much and how often to feed has been discussed earlier so not going into that. Rather I want to focus on WHAT TO FEED.

Shrimp diet shld ideally be 70% algae and biofilm and 30% protein. Branded shrimp foods generally have all the things required for them to grow healthy and develop good colour. The compound “Astaxanthin” is what helps shrimps have their colouration and it also has other benefits. Make sure your branded food has this compound if you are buying one. Otherwise it is as good as making it yourself at home.

I will share what I prefer underneath (without mentioning the brand):1. Crab Cuisine2. Shrimp Cuisine3. Algae Wafers4. Normal sinking flake food5. DIY food

From the above list algae wafer forms 70% of their diet and the other options are fed sparingly.Flake food is good if you have babies so as the adults feed theu get some bits on the side.

I made the diy shrimp food following a popular shrimp channel. The recipe was really very simple and the process was easy. I generally avoid complicated things.

It needs:- Spinach (Palong Saag) high in calcium- 1 Egg (full raw egg) for protein- Flour (moida) binder and helps food to sink- a bowl and spoon- Freezer

Process:-

Trim a couple of spinach leaves 4-5 should be enough

– wash the spinach thoroughly upto 2-3 times to remove all pesticides and impurities

– Paste it in a mixer or manually

– Mix with one whole egg in the bowl

– Gradually add flour to make the dough

– Flatten the dough on a plastic/glass plate

– Make cuts on the flat dough as per the feeding portions..keep them narrow and short but do this before freezing- Dry freeze in deep freezer

– The dough will gradually dry up and solidify you can then remove them from the plate and store in a container for future use.

– Store in normal fridge helps in preserving

This will give you enough shrimp food for 5-6months.. so make less. Do add the flour or atta as you wish doesnt make any difference.By doing this you can gradually introduce other ingredients in the food for eg. spirulina, carrots, kale, cucumber, shrimp meal, pollen, even “astaxanthin” !!

Avoid egg shells they dont do much good.Winter is the best time to try all this because most of the ingredients are available during this time and also they dont generally go bad so quickly.

For the more expermental ones you coukd definitely try insect meal, blood worms and mosquito larva as ingredients. Just dont go overboard that’s all. Because putting too much of protein will make the food go bad quickly under water leading to ammonia spikes. ..and I cant be held responsible for that Learn from your mistakes that is the best way to do anything new.

Please share your feeding tips as well with us. Any of your observation will be really helpful for us since this is primarily a knowledge and experience sharing platform.

Thanks and Happy Shrimp Keeping !!