I finally fed Frozen Shrimp To My Clown Loaches

[TwoTankAmin]

I an talking about the kind of shrimp used in shrimp cocktail. I was never certain about the best way for doing this and I finally did some unplanned reading and what I discovered was one could use either raw or cooked shrimp. These can be bough both fresh and frozen. For the sake of cost and ability to store them I wen t with cooked frozen shrimp which had been shelled and deveined but still had their tails on. I bought a 1/2 pound a bag of them in one of the local supermarkets fish dept.

I divided the shrimp into two plastic containers. I put the bigger of the two into the freezer out in our 2nd building where I am down to 3 tanks but which used to have most of my pleco related tanks, The smaller portion of shrimp went into the freezer in the kitchen. I also kept out two shrimp in a small dish I put in the fridge to defrost. I fed them last nut.

The clown tank is now a 125 gal .with 9 clowns of assorted sizes from about 3.5+ to one 10+ and the queen at about one foot ( measurements ore Total Length). It also holds 6 adult red line barbs. I was concerned about who could swallow what, so I cut the shrimp into different sizes based on what I though the fish could handled. This was the first time any of tthe fish would be presented with this food. So I was not certain how they would react. It took a couple of minutes for them to figure out ot was food but when they did it disappeared fast and I went back to the kitchen to cut up the second shrimp. That two did not last very long on the bottom of the tank.

Rhe best part of this was I knew if the fish rejected the shrimp I would not do so. All I would have to do was to whip up my special cocktail sauce. What amazed me the most when was i spotted a red line barb with a piece of shrimp in it's mouth.

 

[anewbie]

I an talking about the kind of shrimp used in shrimp cocktail. I was never certain about the best way for doing this and I finally did some unplanned reading and what I discovered was one could use either raw or cooked shrimp. These can be bough both fresh and frozen. For the sake of cost and ability to store them I wen t with cooked frozen shrimp which had been shelled and deveined but still had their tails on. I bought a 1/2 pound a bag of them in one of the local supermarkets fish dept.

I divided the shrimp into two plastic containers. I put the bigger of the two into the freezer out in our 2nd building where I am down to 3 tanks but which used to have most of my pleco related tanks, The smaller portion of shrimp went into the freezer in the kitchen. I also kept out two shrimp in a small dish I put in the fridge to defrost. I fed them last nut.

The clown tank is now a 125 gal .with 9 clowns of assorted sizes from about 3.5+ to one 10+ and the queen at about one foot ( measurements ore Total Length). It also holds 6 adult red line barbs. I was concerned about who could swallow what, so I cut the shrimp into different sizes based on what I though the fish could handled. This was the first time any of tthe fish would be presented with this food. So I was not certain how they would react. It took a couple of minutes for them to figure out ot was food but when they did it disappeared fast and I went back to the kitchen to cut up the second shrimp. That two did not last very long on the bottom of the tank.

Rhe best part of this was I knew if the fish rejected the shrimp I would not do so. All I would have to do was to whip up my special cocktail sauce. What amazed me the most when was i spotted a red line barb with a piece of shrimp in it's mouth.

When i was looking into this a year ago i saw an article (not sure if it was reliable) that raw was better than cooked - something about enzime the fishes couldn't digest if cooked. My group of clown loaches (not as old as yours) would never eat it but my bkg gobbled it down. What my clown loaches love a nice large live snails. I also tried raw salmon with similar results. Suppose I should have kept trying until they got the hang of it but i didn't see the point.

 

[GaryE]

I've been using shrimp for many years, but I run it through a grinder since I have small fish.

When I have had to deliver internal meds to fish, shrimp paste often works very well.

 

[Magnum Man]

30 years ago, I used cooked popcorn shrimp, because it was cheaper than fish food, and a whole protein... I was as "out of the box" back then, before the internet... I also fed chopped squid, as long as that was available... the local grocery store must have gotten some by accident, and was practically giving away 5 lb. boxes of whole frozen squid... unfortunately I figured out I liked squid myself, and as a bigger predator, I consumed it faster than the fish did... and once gone, it wasn't replaceable...

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I did some reading before I took the plunge. One of the best known clown keepers in the world, Emma Turner, and her now deceased legendary Marge, said she went with cooked shrimp and did just fine. When Emma posted on loaches.com (now gone ) about Marge' s passing, here is one of the replies I got via the Wayback Machine:

I will never forget the time in 2006 when a whole bunch of us stood in Emma's lounge in front of that magnificent aquarium and Emma tried to encourage Marge to come out of hiding. The others that form the superb shoal of Clowns in that tank were gorgeous in their own right and gave us all much visual pleasure.

And then Marge appeared. A room full of Loach keepers stopped breathing momentarily I think. Then a quietly spoken F-word eminated from many of our lips. It was the only expletive that remotely approached adequacy in reacting to this fish.

I don't believe there is anything that could adequately prepare a Loach enthusiast for a first sighting of Marge. She was so far beyond any other specimen you have ever seen of this species. You can know that they get that big (or bigger in the wild), but unless you have ever netted a mature adult from its native stream you can't get your head around Marge.

She lives on, life-size on pages 222 and 223 of the book Loaches. We fought to get this picture of her in the book so that people could see just what these fish can become. Because she was and will remain an icon of our hobby.

from the original thread which you can read here https://web.archive.org/web/2020102...x/photos/c/Chromobotia_macracanthus_marge.JPG

This was Marge.

One of the comments I read about feeding shrimp was about the risk if what might nasty might be hiding on/in raw shrimp. I assume between the cooking and then the freezing what I chose was safer to use.

 

[anewbie]

I did some reading before I took the plunge. One of the best known clown keepers in the world, Emma Turner, and her now deceased legendary Marge, said she went with cooked shrimp and did just fine. When Emma posted on loaches.com (now gone ) about Marge' s passing, here is one of the replies I got via the Wayback Machine:


from the original thread which you can read here https://web.archive.org/web/2020102...x/photos/c/Chromobotia_macracanthus_marge.JPG

This was Marge.

One of the comments I read about feeding shrimp was about the risk if what might nasty might be hiding on/in raw shrimp. I assume between the cooking and then the freezing what I chose was safer to use.

I don't know - i just did a 5 minute search and couldn't find anything beyond people's opinion. I thought i saw an actual paper on the subject but perhaps i made it up in a dream. In any event i couldn't get them to eat it raw so maybe i could try cooking (or buying it cooked) one day and see what happens. I do know they love snails as someone gave me 10 live mystery snails and they lasted less than 10 minutes. I certainly would give them more snails but i'm not going to pay for them

In anyevent it is almost official i will have to move so my clown loaches will get a larger aquarium. Their current home is 10x4 and i'm thinking 12x4 with fewer tank mates.

 

[Innesfan]

From Innes (1935):

"A boiled, lightly scored shrimp suspended on a string hanging from a light...Leave in as long as they enthuse over the work and consume the fallen bits."