The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

I have set up "death row" for the shrimps now (an 18" tank in the garage ) and was advised by the LFS not to feed them live too often to prevent them getting addicted to live food. Is this good advice or bad. I cannot see how live food can be bad for them. I thought maybe alternating live and frozen every 3 days?

Thoughts?

Alternating is fine.

And you think every 3 days is OK? They will not take anything but frozen shell off cockles, fussy buggers

How big are they?

jacknife wrote:And you think every 3 days is OK? They will not take anything but frozen shell off cockles, fussy buggers

What else have you tried?

They are about 4-5" long.

I have tried mussels and shell on cockles. They were taking krill but it just gets too messy when it disintegrates in the water.

Have you tried tieing a piece of string or using a wooden skewer like a chopstick with the Mussel and bobbing it around to simulate live food in the tank, that might get their interest peaked.

Or try soaking in water with some garlic slices in it. Every 3 days is fine.

I used to feed them with a cocktail stick when they were in the community tank so that the food did not get lost. I will try with some cotton or something.

Garlic!!! Does that help?

jacknife wrote:Garlic!!! Does that help?

It can do.

Yup, garlic is a natural appetite stimulant. I use a pair of stainless steel tongs, the string trick never worked for me. With my palembang, I'd have to wave it at him for a week or two, eventually banging him gently in the nose before he'd take a bite. Once he did and realized it was tasty, never had another problem.

How?

I was wondering why feeding live shrimp and getting them "addicted" was a bad thing as well. Do they need a mix?

I thought about using an empty cockle shell and getting them to take frozen cockles from it then slowly trying the shell on ones.

How what?

Yes, for optimal health, they should have a varied diet. Its like you eating nothing but steak. Not terribly healthy.