Feeding Red Cherry Shrimp

[kurly]

What can I feed my red cherry shrimp besides the algae they eat on my plants?

[Azear]

Food-

Crab and lobster bites - I use HBH, but Hikari and other brands are fine too. Preferably sinking.
Blanched spinach- finely chopped. Feed sparingly.....takes them awhile to eat it.
Homemade foods - under plantgeek articles, look for homemade frozen veggie food, diy.
Flake food - I prefer the omega one veggie flakes, but any quality veggie/spirulina algae flake.
Algae wafers- I prefer omega one veggie discs, but they’ll eat any algae wafer.
Algae-ridden plants - I routinely drop plants in there from other tanks that have algae on them. Good food for the shrimp, nice service for me.
PlantGeek.net reference (http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=19)

That's about it :) well... I hope...

[hungryhound]

i feed mine hikiri crab bites. You can find them online at a couple of stores,.

[Fishalicious]

They are not fussy and will eat anything you feed your fish also...flakes, frozen etc. etc. mine are also daft on some bloodworms now and again

[Algenco]

Peas! Frozen peas,blanched, split and remove the skin, they love them. Other than that, just about anything. Want to see them go nuts? Scape some algae and watch them go

[Fishguy2727]

The smallest NLS you can get a hold of, I think their smallest pellet is 0.35mm.

[Algenco]

mine attack the Thera A pellets 1mm

[zackish]

There is a NLS can of food that simply says, "small fish sinking food" or something like that. I am not sure how many millimeters they are but they are pretty small.

[kurly]

Thanks for all the suggestions. But now I have another question....I am a little confused on when to feed them other food and how much to feed them. Since they eat algae on the plants, how do I know if I am feeding them too much? I don't want them to die from overeating or do they know when to stop unlike some fish?

[shultz]

Kurly,

I'm still "new" to RCS so take that into consideration.

I have a 12 gallon nano with well over 2 dozen RCS now(started with 10) 6 small neons and 2 small otto's... heavily planted including 2 small chunks of drift wood covered in Java moss... oh and snail hitchhikers... LOT's of the little buggers!!!! My clown loaches in my 100 gal really enjoy the snail snacks:1luvu:

I feed my tank a small pinch of tetra pro tropical chrisp's every day( I'm takling about 3 or 4 flak disc's crushed up when I say pinch) every now and then the shrimp get some before the neons scarf it up. I also feed them mysis shrimp 2-3 times a week(left overs from feeding my reef) they all get in on this action except the otto's. the shrimp are ALWAY's eating off the moss, plants, and from the sand bed... algae, ditirus and so on... they don't go hungry to say the least and never seem to get FULL... they breed like NOTHING I've ever seen.... I can't think of a time I haven't had at least one female berried up.

For over feeding TEST YOUR WATER!!!! keep a very close eye on nitrates... ZERO is best but under 5 is OK... if your having a hard time keeping nitrates under control you're OVER FEEDING!!! make sure your doing at least weekly water changes... I do 2 gallon's every 3 day's to keep my nitrates at ZERO... weekly water changes show nitrates of less than 5 but still I do water changes every 3 day's just to keep pristine water quality for my RCS.

John

[Algenco]

unless you have a tankful, you don't have to feed them at all, I know folks that have gone 6 months without feeding or changing water, I couldn't do that myself. I have java moss growing on rocks that I move back and forth from the shrimp tanks to my others, they will cover it up within 5 minutes of being placed in their tank! They love the bio film.
Fish foods , only what they can clean up in about an hour, peas I leave for 12 hrs. and adjust. I have 2-10 gals that each have several hundred cherries, you would be amazed how much food they can eat!

[kurly]

My shrimp are always eating alot of the sinking wafers I feed my cory cats. Is it okay that they eat that? I can't keep the shrimp away from them.

[Spyder]

The best thing to do is feed them crushed flake food once a week and get some dryed out oak leaves, make sure there are no pestisides on them. Once they are totally dryed out put them in some water, once they sink you can put them in the shrimp tank. You can put a couple in at a time. Once they eat the leaf put in more.