Do Ghost Shrimp Eat Dead Brine Shrimp?

[ileopard]

I'm going to be raising brine shrimp to adult size to feed my adult bettas. (Lucky for them -- they'll be getting adult brine shrimp and freeze-dried bloodworms.)

I'm worried about dead brine shrimp killing the healthy ones. Of course, I will do weekly water changes (it'll be a 10 USG tank, so I don't need to clean it as much as a smaller tank), so that should help.

If I add a ghost shrimp to the tank to eat dead brine shrimp, will it also end up eating the live ones, or just the dead ones?

 

[three-fingers]

I think adding a ghost shrimp would be a bad idea, since brine shrimp are usually raised in higher levels of salt than even marine ghost shrimp can handle.
Also, i think they would eat the live ones too, since there are storys of them eating baby guppies and they certainly eat live bloodworms .

 

[ileopard]

Do you know of another animal that survives in saltwater and would eat only dead brine shrimp?

 

[starrynightxxi]

be sure to gut load your adult shrimps before feeding them as i hear there's very little nutritional value to them once they're grown (not sure why, i don't use 'em).

 

[three-fingers]

Theres nothing else that will live in a brine shrimp tank for two reasons 1)The tanks too small and no where near whats required for marine animals(other than brine shrimp) and 2)Brine shrimp water is usually too saline .

The only creature that comes close to what your looking for would be a marine snail, but those are still highly unsuitable and would die very quickly adding t your problems.

In the wild, brine shrimp only occur where the water is too salty(or otherwise unsuitable) for other animals to survive, this way they avoid being eaten. Also the notation that a smaller tank needs less water changes is a wrong one. Its the opposite way rounds, smaller tanks need more water changes. The smaller a body of water is, the less stable it is .

And as starrynightxxi, even if there was something that could survive the same conditions as brineshrimp, it wouldn't be able to live on brineshrimp alone, especially not dead ones. I suggest you use a large pipette to get rid of the dead brine shrimp. There is also going to be alot of brine shrimp sheds in the tank, which nothing would eat, so you would need to be removing these anyway.

Hope i was some help .

 

[ileopard]

Thanks. For gut loading, will Hikari Betta Bio-Gold work? It's made for bettas, but I don't see why the shrimp wouldn't eat it as it's a betta food.

 

[three-fingers]

It may work, but your going to need to powder it down into REALLY small particles, mix it with the brine shrimps tank water in a syringe, then squirt it back in. You'll need to be careful how much you put in,if too much is put in they can die fast, and if not enough is put in, then its kind of a pointless exercise.

 

[ileopard]

The Betta Bio-Gold is fairly small, but I will still cut it up. I will use an eyedropper and mix the small pellets with tank water.

 

[three-fingers]

You will need to do more than cut it up, you will need to grind it into very fine powder .

 

[ileopard]

Late response (I don't check this part of the forum very often, sorry!), but since it would be hard to crumble Bio-Gold into fine powder, I'll see about a betta fry food that meets betta nutritional needs. Would this work:

http/www.mreed.com/fryfoods.shtml

If so, do you think the 100-200 micron or the 200-500 micron food would work better?

Thanks!

 

[three-fingers]

Neither, the food needs to be smaller than 60 microns .

 

[ileopard]

Wow, that'll be hard. I'll continue looking.

Thanks everyone!

 

[14gtr14]

sorry to burst your bubble, but i've got a feeling it'll all end in tears...well, dissappointment at least! I don't know much about rasing brineshrimp, but to do it on a scale to feed your betta, it seems alot of hassle for what it's worth. Would it not be best just feeding your betta the pellets and once or twice a week buy brineshrimp from the lfs?

greg

good luck if you go ahead with your plan!

 

[three-fingers]

But rearing brineshrimp is quite fun if you can actually do it. Not worth it at all for feeding to fish unless your just wanting bbs, but still.....FUN!

 

[14gtr14]

ha ye! but on a small scale...like a kids sea monkeys!

are you planning feeding them to your betta everyday? It just seems a hassle, if so, to be constantly feeding them betta pellets and then feeding the shrimp to the betta....cut the middle man out and give the betta betta pellets


greg