Hi,
I have 60 Opae Ula "Hawaiian Red" shrimps in a 1 gallon tank. I have just started this hobby a month ago and I would like them to grow up fast and encourage breeding. I understand that to do that, they have to be well fed. I also note that it is commonly stated that the number 1 cause of shrimp casualty is overfeeding. However, it seems like the exact cause isnt exactly overfeeding, but that when the shrimps are full and do not consume the provided food fully, the excess food pollutes the water and causes a mineral imbalance. This problem is particularly prevalent for people who feed their shrimps Spirulina Powder as it seems that many times the Spirulina isn't completed consumed.
To counter that, is there any problem with me feeding the shrimps 0.5mm diameter sized algae pellets daily, and if they are able to consume all the pellets, to keep increasing the quantity until i realise that they stop eating them? This is to ensure that they are able to eat as much as they want, because every time i put in food pellets into the tank they seem to gorge on the pellets and fight for it as if they haven eaten for a long time. And they always seem to finish every pellet i drop in. I have already been feeding them daily but they always seem to want more and i never seem to give them enough to eat.
My tank receives minimal indirect sunlight as i have blackout curtains, but i do try to let just a little sunlight in. I have 2 nerite snails as well and they seem to graze fine. But recently one nerite snail has been repeatedly crossing the 3mm air gap between the tank and the top lid and going out of water by hanging upside down from the top lid. I wonder if that means there isnt enough food in the tank?
Kindly advise! Thx!
Hi, I am not sure about your case. However, I feel that it is better to underfeed than overfeed if your tank is planted. I am also starting out recently but I notice that if I feed them too much, they can't molt properly and will suddenly die while molting.
There is this rule stated on all food container that feed as much as the shrimps/fishes can eat in 5 mins or 15mins, after that remove all unfinished food.
i think the guage for shrimps and fishes are different. for fishes its 5 to 10 minutes. For shrimps, you have to give them more time. I usually remove the food after 1 to 2 hrs.
In your case... the issue of the tank water becoming polluted due to feeding is compounded by your very small tank volume of 1 gallon (ie. 3+ liters?) housing 60 shrimps and 2 nerite snails. Based on that sort of livestock ratio to water volume, the water will naturally foul very quickly with the regular feeding of so many shrimps.Originally Posted by junwei38
The nerite snail climbing out of the tank repeatedly could be a sign of water conditions going bad and its trying to escape to look for other less polluted water sources (nerite snails are tidal creatures in nature and regularly migrate short distances to find more favorable environments).
If you want to feed 60 shrimps well and still maintain good water conditions, you'll need to increase the tank size to hold more water volume. It'll be best if you can upgrade to a larger 20-30 liter tank (or larger even better), so that the added water capacity can dilute the waste and ammonia produced by the shrimps and slow down the build-up in toxic parameters between water changes.
The other alternative is greatly reduce the number of shrimps in your small tank (down to say just 5-10 shrimps), so you can feed less and hence less waste produced.
Btw, shrimps actually require very little food (way less than you'd think)... i have 2ft (64 liter) grow-out tanks with 150+ shrimps and i only feed them 1 mini algae wafer (approx. 1cm diameter disc) every 2 days, yet they still grow and breed, and the water conditions are kept stable.
Shrimps will keep eating non-stop if you constantly feed them (in nature they never know when they will be short of food, so they just keep eating). What usually happens is the excess food they eat is not digested fully and when they poop it out it's still undigested, which rots quickly and adds even more pollution to the tank.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 29th Dec 2014 at 01:10.
For Opae Ula ... I think it is better to put a mini HOF if you want to overfeed ... If u r unsure, why not try feeding with algae powder ... I think it is better .. Personally, i have a mini HOF for 100 Opae ula and 5 hermit crab in a 1 feet cube tank ..So far so good
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