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Horser01
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So I've done a ton of research, and while everyone agrees on what shrimp need in general, it seems as far as brands and types, everyone says something different. I'm a total newbie (in case you couldn't tell. Lol.) so I have no experience to go off of, so I was hoping you could help me with yours.

I decided on BorneoWild, based on reviews of the product and suggestions to other newbies, but they didn't specify which types. I've narrowed it down to:

BorneoWild - Grow

BorneoWild - Barley

BorneoWild - Floral Mix

BorneoWild - Beanbee

and Algea Wafers

I was thinking it would be good to get the Algea Wafers, Floral Mix, and one of the other three. Then I'd rotate / mix them. One today, the next type in two days, the third type in another two days, and then back to the first type.

Can anyone tell me if these are good foods for Neocaridina and which one(s) I should use? Should I rotate all of them? Some of them? Only feed one? Feeding schedule? (I read it's a 2-3 mm piece for 10-20 shrimp every 2-3 days) If you think a different brand or type would be better, please let me know which brand and type and why.

Thanks for your help and info!

P.S. - Has anyone used this for substrate? https://www.amazon.ca/Up-D-550-Aqua-Shrimp-Sand/dp/B005VS1I0M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465708670&sr=8-1&keywords=aqua+soil

Is it a good one? Can you recommend a good substrate I won't have to replace for (practically) forever?

Edited by Horser01
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I already replied to your pm

Here is my standard diet for my shrimps

monday: Benibachi SP food (colour food) or Benibachi Golden Food (for tiger shrimps)

Tuesday: SKA Barley Pellets
Wednesday: Benibachi Red Bee Ambitious
Thursday: Benibachi Kale Tablets

Friday: off

Saturday: SKA Snowflake food + treats
Sunday: Freah boiled baby spinach (+ weekly additives)

As you can see i prefer the benibachi brand but that is just my personal preference. With neo's you can keep the same basic schedule; a colour type food (monday) and growth type food (wednesday). Let me know if you have any questions. A simpler method would be to stick with a staple type food 2-3 times a week and supplement it with something like snowflake, kale & spinach

With shrimps, aorund 80% of the food they eat actually comes from their environment (biofilm, algae) so anything you feed is just to supplement that. That begin said you want to have a decent light that promote the growth of biofilm and algae - i like to leave the wall of my tanks covered in it and just clean the front so i can see inside.

As for the substrate, what is the parameters of your tap water straight from the tap (PH, GH, KH). In most cases it should be fine for neo's so all you really need is any inert gravel if you plan on only keeping neocaridinas. Of course, not all of the products out there are 100% inert even if they say they are. I had good experience with Carbisea Supernatural moonlight sand & golden sunset, as well as the ADA La Plata sand.

Any active buffering substrate like the up aqua sand or ADA aqua soil will eventually be exhausted of their buffering capacity; especially if you are using it with tap water. Typically they last around 1 - 1 1/2 year with tap water and 2-3 years with RODI water. $32 for kg of the up Aqua stuff is quite pricey; you can get 8kg of FLuval or 9L of ADA aquasoil for around $45-50.

That being said, i had customers use them just fine with tapwater for neo's but it is really not necessary unless your tap water is very hard.

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  • 1 year later...

Depends on the shrimp I guess. For cherry shrimp or any Neocaridina, I use hikari algae wafers. Use a mortar and pestle to grind them down to small chunks/ fine dust works great as a staple for adult's/babies. Once or twice a week I'll toss a half a cube of thawed frozen blood worms in, which they seem to enjoy as well.  I keep hornwort in a lot of my shrimp tanks and if your water is too low on nitrate, which tends to happen from time to time the hornwort will shed reminding me to dose some nitrates. The needles will collect on the bottom and once softened over time seems to be a good source of food as well(whether they are eating the softened plant needles or something that is growing on it I'm not sure, but the babies love to graze this stuff.).  Very ugly looking tank if you do this but great if your looking to explode your population.

I feed a pinch twice a day, on non blood worm days.  Make sure if you use floating plants to give them a bit of a wack with some plant tweezers or something to knock the food shower through the plants and spread it around the tank.  Your sponge filter circulation will also help with this.  You don't want 100 % of the food to remain in the plants. Many vegetables blended up and baked for a bit at 50 F will work just as well ground up.

Just thought I'd toss some cheaper options at you.  Depends what you are doing.  All of SKAshrimps suggestions will yield better results but cost you a lot more.

Hikari Algae Wafers do list copper sulfate at the end of it's ingredients list fyi.  I have noticed no ill effects personally but be aware of that. I don't keep any higher end shrimp so results may be different depending on shrimp type.  Not sure on your local water supply but here in Edmonton a 20 or 30% water change or just adding in some CSM + B to have a mid range TDS weekly plus the nutrients from food will keep your shrimp happily molting(Edmonton tap water seems to be medium hard).  Keep an eye on your ammonia if you have too much plant matter rotting you can overload your sponge and might have to do some cleanup from time to time. But if your using hornwort the chance of getting a spike that will not be consumed by the plant and the filter is very small.

Edited by Percilus
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