Shrimp Staple Food In Edmonton?

[AJanzen]

Hey all, wondering if any of you have found a decent shrimp staple at an lfs here in town. I have a 10G stocked with only cherry shrimp and I'm on the verge of running out of food. Tried some of the blanched veggie suggestions and they don't seem to take to it. Last stuff I got was shrimpscape from Canadian Aquatics and they loved it. I have (estimated) about 200 RCS in this 10G so they need a lot of food. Everyone's happy (only about 30 adults) with regular water changeouts and a heavily planted planted tank but I suspect a high death rate and anarchy as soon as the food stops.

[Vallisneria]

I just feed all my shrimp(orange and cherry) NLS, which ever size/kind I have at the time. Usually its the cichlid variety or sometimes the H2O waffers. I've never bought special shrimp food

[Sprucegruve]

I do the same as vallisneria now,you should be able to make a good variety of food from all of the different fish foods you already may own.

If you really want a staple shrimp food your best bet is to join a group order from Canadian aquatics.

In the past I have used the Ebiken line of food it is really good.

but once you read what's in the ingredients you can figure out what to feed them yourself. Veggies and meat in moderation,mostly veggies for cherry shrimp.

[euripides]

If you stop by aquarium central, they sell Hikari crab cuisine. that stuff is specialized for invertebrates, and the price isn't too bad. NLS does have copper in the ingredients, where the crab cuisine doesn't. But that being said I haven't had any issues with my shrimp eating NLS. Only thing I noticed is my Red claw macro shrimps, when I fed them NLS the females were not get berried anymore. months later switching to crab cuisine the females are now berried.

[SuperGuppyGirl]

Same for me, I feed NLS color flakes with garlic and just once a week toss in a few algae/veggie wafers and some spirulina tablets, seem to like it just fine with my RCS lol went from 15 to at least 50+ and they ar in an unheated tank with some live plants and a aquatech filter.

[RD.]

With regards to copper in food for shrimp, this topic comes up from time to time on various forums and is something that many shrimp owners do not fully understand.

In small quantities, copper is an essential element to all life forms, including shrimp.

Copper and Aquatic Life

http://www.copper.or...ter_health.html

Edited August 22, 2012 by RD.

[Sprucegruve]

Sweet RD.

I read that same article when you posted it awhile ago.

I since lost it,now I have it saved again.

I wanted to bring up this article earlier today but couldent

[RD.]

There has been a LOT of confusion caused on forums over the years due to people confusing the harmful effects of copper medication, with the life supporting attributes of the mineral copper when added in trace amounts to fish food. Even Hikari has copper in their shrimp cuisine. http://www.hikari.info/tropical/t_29.html

" Contains copper which is necessary for blood regeneration"

Often the copper found in fish food is naturally occuring, derived from some of the raw ingredients themselves. Some manufacturers list it as part of the mineral composition on their labels, and some don't, but I doubt that there is a single fish/shrimp food made in the world that is completely void of copper, for the reasons explained in the link that I posted in my previous response.