Meaty Feasts For Evil Shrimp

[lozronz]

Hey, I have been feeding My Long-armed shrimp standard fish food for a while which he seems quite happy with but slowed down growing loads from when I foolishly had him in a community tank and he went though half my stock.

I put a large fish that had died from another tank and he relished it, eating his own body weight in a day and over night looks thicker and has shed again. So I have probably been under feeding him.

He is about 19cm now and 4cm thick at the head and I wanna see how big I can get him!

Can anyone suggest something meaty that he could chow down on that would not pollute the water too much. (he is not fussy, he ate a whole plastic plant the other day!)

 

[Invader Xan]

I've heard of people buying a tuna steak and keeping it in the freezer. Then you can just cut a chunk off every day or two, defrost it in some warm water and feed it to him. As long as it isn't anything too oily (definitely no Salmon!), it should be fine.

Me, I sometimes treat my shrimp with jellied bloodworms...

 

[three-fingers]

You can buy frozen fish from your lfs for 2.20 a packet - same as frozen blisters. I have some now - for feeding to my regular community fish .

I'd say they are a good bet.

 

[fatboy]

I regularly feed my m. rosenbergii earthworms and she loves them. She'll eat 5-7 6" worms in a session. She is much more active when I feed these than when I only feed her standard dry food, mostly small catfish pellets. At least 3 times I week I give her frozen bloodworms or mysis shrimp. She won't touch squid or cockles for some reason.

She's eaten any fish I've put in her tank and I considered getting mollies to breed for food. I've since seen her eat a live fish tail first and now feel it's needlessly cruel. The poor fishy was alive for at least 5 minutes as it was slowly munched. It's a shame as she is much more active when she has fish in the same tank.

Do you have any small pond snails? I keep a tub in my kitchen because Pickles loves to hunt those. They grow in a small 5 litre tub and provide a free treat for her.

Also, have you ever tried adding soft plants like cabomba? I keep some in my other tanks and throw in as much as she will eat. It's a way of adding variety to her diet, and she can eat 4 12" strands overnight before getting bored for a while.

 

[GoldLenny]

I think they need lots of low-fat protein rich foods.. meaning fish meat! I've seen people use faux crab meat as a source of low-fat protein rich fish product that is less expensive than other things but get whatever is less expensive.

 

[Liam]

I do like the picture, I have never kept these monsters; they look cool. I read don’t remember where or if its true, that they have the fastest relative growth rate of any animal. Great pic

 

[lozronz]

Thanks for everyones help. Will start varying food a bit more. Has anyone found a companion for them when they get to 15cm+ that will not be considered food? I think I have to consider mine a species tank critter. He was living with a Big Jewel Cichlid (the supposed very aggressive one) for ages but he turned out to be lunch in the end. There seems to be nothing Fast,aggressive or armored enough not to be prey.

They must be a very prolific species, they seem virtually indestructible,very intelligent, voracious predators, can live in many water conditions, re-grow limbs quickly. If they ever evolved to go on land and increased in size humans would be buggered!

Cheers

Fatboy, what is your icon? he looks awsome!

 

[fatboy]

Thanks for everyones help. Will start varying food a bit more. Has anyone found a companion for them when they get to 15cm+ that will not be considered food?

I've tried adult tiger barbs and they were eaten. So were adult bristlenose catfish. I've not tried cichlids as I'm sure they would eat the shrimp. That's the problem - most things that would be safe from the shrimp woulkd be a danger to the shrimp.

I've considered silver sharks or somthing similar because I think they'd be strong enough to avoid being captured but peaceful enough to leave Pickles alone.

Fatboy, what is your icon? he looks awsome!

That's an Aegla species, probably A. platensis. They're freshwater Anomurans, relatives of hermit 'crabs' and marine squat lobsters. I got mine from Germany (http/www.interaquaristik.de) because they were so novel and hope to breed them. They're mostly nocturnal and very shy but the novelty more than makes up for that.