Do I need to "feed" Amano Shrimp

[pinsonpa]

I just added 4 amano shrimp to my 10 gallon tank about two weeks ago. They seem to be doing fine (at least one has already molted it's exoskeleton).

Do I need to be adding any special food for them or are they fine just dumpster diving? They seem to be very interested in feeding time for my Cardinal Tetras (TetraMin Pro Crisps that I break up into little pieces) and position themselves directly under the bio-wheel. The down-flow of water from my bio-wheel sometimes pushes a few small pieces of food underwater which sinks down to the gravel. The Cardinals are pretty quick to the surface at meal time now so this isn't a regular thing.

Just today, I read in another thread that once they taste fish food they may not eat much algae anymore...ooops. Should I just keep doing what I'm doing or should I be making more of a deliberate effort to keep flake (crisps) food from getting to them? What about Algae pellets?

[Sasquatch]

If you've got a lot of algae in your tank and/or you over feed (just a little bit :ezpi_wink1: ) you probably don't need to feed them.

We drop an algae wafer or some other sinking pellet type food in the tank every now and again to feed ours and they do just fine.

[doug z]

I was talking to Dave66 about this (before your time, pinsonpa)..

Mind you we were talking about otos..

But he said that you're ok supplementing their diet..

I don't see how it would be any different for shrimp..

Just keep in mind if there's alot of algae in the tank, you probably don't need to give it to them in wafer form.. :)

Let us know if they keep on eating the algae, or wether they do indeed get dependent on the wafers..

[Adrian]

From what I understand of the shrimp family, they are scavengers and opportunistic feeders. They will eat just about anything they can get their claws on. If they are hungry, they will forage looking for tidbits, such as algae, uneaten food, and other things in the tank that they may find appealing. I wouldn't worry about them starving, unless you don't feed your fish often enough. If you are feeding once a day, I am sure they will find food bits.

Algae, once developed will be a feeding ground for them. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just make sure there is some iodine in the tank. You won't need much, but it will help with the molt process, as well as aiding in the hardening of their exoskeleton.

[siymdapolio]

yup agree with all the above posts... They love green hair algae and they are scavengers and i just added three and they are acclimating right now! Woot woot!!

I am sure they will do just fine it your tank!