Iodine dosing & Shrimps

[Navanod]

Recently, I had gotten interested in a certain theory that iodine, particularly that which is dosed directly into the water column, is essential for shrimp's growth.

Having done quite a fair bit of reading, and finally finding an article that came from a reputable person, I feel the need to put this theory to rest (at great risk of inviting more flames), lest some of those folks who expressed interest actually tries to dose iodine into their tanks

According to this article:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/3/chemistry

written by Randy Holmes-Farley, who has a BA in chemistry and biology from Cornell University, a PhD in chemistry from Harvard University and is the resident chemist consultant on Reef Central, one would find the following info halfway through the article (emphasis are mine):

"As one moves up the food chain to more sophisticated organisms, data on their ability to take up iodine from the water column becomes very sparse. Shrimp are known to have a need for iodine to grow, but that is only known in terms of a dietary requirement. The shrimp, Penaeus chinensis O'sbeck, for example, grows optimally when the diet contains 0.003% iodine.

Shrimp apparently incorporate substantial amounts of iodoorganics into their bodies. The shrimp Pandalus borealis, for example, incorporates between 0.04 and 2 ppm iodine as iodoorganic compounds depending on the particular body tissues examined. Their roe were somewhat higher, up to 4 ppm iodine as iodoorganic compounds. Shrimp shells and other parts can contain up to 17 ppm by dry weight iodine, the majority of which is iodoorganic compounds, but the values are still far lower than for other inverts like macroalgae, sponges, or gorgonia.

Still, the amount contained says nothing about whether iodine is an important requirement. I could find no scientific studies that showed that shrimp need iodine from the water column, but neither could I find any that demonstrates that they do not."

In summary, although no one can prove that shrimps do not need iodine in the water, no one had proven that they do either.
What we do know, is that they get most of their iodine from their food, and even then, the amount required is minuscules.
Having kept shrimps for 3 years, I can testify that my shrimps had never received direct iodine dosed into the water column & most still managed pretty well without it.
Considering that the author said near the end of the article:
"I would strongly advise people to not try to maintain 0.06 ppm iodine using supplementation and a test kit."
I would also urge everyone not to try it in a freshwater shrimp tank.

For those who could be bothered to actually read the rest of the article, you'll find that the main organism that are happiest with iodine in the water column, are the marine macro algaes.

[hyun007]

I agree with you, I will rather let them get the iodine through their food source than dosing.

Trying to do something to the water is usually dangerous or "itchy hand".

[xconnect.]

I only know our mineral plus got a super little amount of iodine which may satisfy the 0.003%

[felix_fx2]

Nava, good article. Will read it up when free.
btw: Phaetophyta (kelp and other brown algae)... a quick glance at the link tells me marine/reef might need to maintain 0.06 ppm iodine.

@xconnect, bro maybe other sources of the shrimp diet will also have a tiny amount of iodine. Do you think so too?

[xconnect.]

But chemically wise isn't iodine quite reactive? Sec 3 chem

[xconnect.]

@felix maybe a super small amount because medic kit got iodine medication to help heal external wound which may mean the food got a super small amount to help healing ? My wild guess

[xconnect.]

Just read mosura excel it says got iodine but nvr say how much

[Draka]

But chemically wise isn't iodine quite reactive? Sec 3 chem

Haha chemically wise quite reactive but amount that can dissolve in water in the first place already is not much. Anyway its the pure iodine that is reactive, iodine compounds, which you get once you put iodine in, will stay in the water fairly unreactively.

[Zee]

Good article..how'd you managed to find it? well, since it's talking about iodine in the reef/marine environment, such dosage would be different from the freshwater environment. I've got a marine and shrimp tank (freshwater) at home, and what I can say is that supplementation dosing for marine / freshwater is definitely different.

So if we want to talk about supplementation dosing here, seawater requires more dosing than freshwater (for instance, I need to dose twice the amount of BB in my marine tank as compared to freshwater to get the same 'effect'). So let's put a scenario here, if I need to dose an amount so that my marine shrimps will get 0.003% iodine, and if we translate it to the freshwater context, I will need to dose half of what I used as compared to seawater (for instance, 1 drop of iodine for marine tank, and half a drop for freshwater tank). Looking at this, we would only require trace amount of iodine supplementation dosing (backed by the research article mentioned and also the context over here), and that trace amount will already be present in the food that you give your shrimps.

What I feel is that unless you do not feed your shrimps at home, or that you are using some fake-produced shrimp food to feed them, then of course your shrimp wouldn't get any iodine in their diet or any other forms of minerals & vitamins lah.

Unless there is concrete research done to show that it is a must to dose high amounts of iodine in our freshwater shrimp tanks, then I'd say all of us here better start running to our LFS to find the iodine supplementation. Else, just leave your tank alone, if nothing dies, leave it. If something dies, take it out . Most of the time, livestock dies because of ammonia/nitrite spike and the assumption that one's tank has already been properly cycled.

Now it's still up to ya'll if you want to dose iodine supplementation or not, if you using it and your shrimps are happy, then all of us are happy for you. If you are not dosing iodine supplementation in your shrimp tank, and you ask other people to use it in their tanks, then I'd say Wat-the-fish.com. Well, I may be wrong with this iodine supplementation thing, maybe the pro's who've kept shrimps (different kinds of them) for a long time can give their inputs

[eviltrain]

ahhhh. this is a much better read than "waterbabe's" i show you the way, now finish it yourself.

thanks bro Navanod to show us newbies the correct information.

[dnsfpl]

those interested can read up lugol's solution

i dose 2 drop of http://www.tropic-marin.com/web/engl...te/pro-jod.htm for my reef(not freshwater shrimp) tank daily

cheers

[stormhawk]

Excellent link Don. That pretty much debunked WaterBabe's claims.

[kiantkh]

Thanks for sharing your findings! =)