Newest Controversy

[JTN]

OK, two weeks ago I decided to create a small "Brine Shrimp Factory" hatcher. I weighed the cost of going to the LFS every other day and the actual cost of the brine against buying the materials and hatching my own.
No more need to go to the LFS for food anymore. This system would prove cost effective over 5 months.
Having done my homework, I went and purchased all of the needs including the shrimp eggs (I think about 3 trillion or something like that..... WOW). Now I am being told by another LFS that; "Feeding your fish live brine shrimp every day is like feeding a person potato chips every day. The can survive on it, get a full belly from it, but with absolutely NO nutritional value whatsoever. And sooner or later the fish (person) will ultimately die from mal-nutrition."

Did I shoot myself in the foot here? Should I take this advice as good? Should I take it with a grain of "Reef Crystals" salt?

??? I am not the slightest bit confused now.......... NOT

Thanks
~jim

 

[harryk]

Brine shrimp have basically no nutritional value for fish. It's like giving them candy IMO. Live brine are good to induce a feeding response in a finicky fish and maybe as a treat once in a while, but for everyday feeding it's not recommended. Mysis shrimp are a much better alternative but they are supposedly hard to cultivate.


Thanks
Harry

 

[MikeNapoli]

Even though it is true that adult brine have no nutritional value ... newly hatched brine are just the opposite and good to feed fish.... from what I hear.

 

[kathainbowen]

To get your answer, you have to look at both hthe physical make-up of brine shrimp and the dietary requirements of your fish.

See, brine shrimp has always been a really popular food for feeding fish for a few reasons. Their eggs have adapted to survive seasonal droughts and hatch the next season, so they can be stored dry for a long time in a format that takes up much less space than any other form of the shrimp. They can be frozen, freeze dried, or fed live, making it really easy to find the best format for a person's set up and feeding programme. In addition to that, the scent of both the frozen and freeze dried format can definitely stimulate feeding in reluctant fish, while the motion of live brine shrimp is generally pretty irresistable to even finicky fish. Seems like the perfect food, right?

Well, not really. The problem with feeding brine shrimp is that, with all these benefits, most people have fallen into the awful habit of relying too heavily upon brine shrimp as a primary or solitary food source. They're high in lipids and other fats, but low in calcium as newly hatched brine shrimp. As they grow, this nutritional value can drop slightly, but the diet of the brine shrimp is what most affects this (so, if they're not getting a good diet, they're going to have less and less nutritional value the older they get when fats are concerned. The protein content, however, rises as the brine shrimp get older while the fat content drops. In addition to that, newly hatched and young brine shrimp are deficient in amino acids, while adults are richer in amino acids. However, that's really about it. That, and water. This means that, for fish like our saltwater friends that get a wide variety diet in the wild, are really getting shortchanged on vitamins when consistently fed just brine shrimp.

So, what does this mean? It means two things.

a.) There are better food sources.

b.) Most people are incorrectly using brine shrimp as a solitary food source when brine shrimp can be incorporated into a proper diet.

If you aren't a big fan of mixing, alternating, or enriching foods, you can continue to use brine shrimp as a treat. Your fish will certain appreciate it. However, if you vary up the diet, mixing it up with other foods, you shouldn't see too much of an issue. By offering many different foods you can compensate for what the brine shrimp lacks in nutrition, especially by mixing in foods that are more desireable for the specific fish that are in your tank. This would include things like offering nori to tangs or putting in plankton for anthias. You can also enrich the brine shrimp with food soaks to help make up for vitamins and minerals that aren't there for your fish. Otherwise, you're falling into a trap of just feeding the same thing over and over again and not meeting the overall nutritional needs of your fish Remember, constantly feeding brine shrimp and nothing else is like a human constant eating just t-bone steaks for their meals and losing out on all the vitamins and sugars we get from fruits and vegetables that beef cannot provide.



..... *phew*

 

[kathainbowen]

b.) Most people are incorrectly using brine shrimp as a solitary food source when brine shrimp can be incorporated into a proper diet.

Ah.... so I really forgot to get on this topic.

A mix I found that I liked incorporated using brine shrimp reallly as a protein source and NOTHING else. I kind of accidentally sutbled on this mix one day when we had just a little bit of everything at work. It started with brine shrimp (usually frozen, but occasionally live when I felt like spoiling everyone rotten), then got some mysis, plankton, chopped squid (isn't it fun to play with the quill?) and mixed it all up. When I could find fresh, not-oily fish that didn't look frozen/thawed/frozen again, I'd hack that up and mix it in. Living in Atlanta at the time, I knew I was never going to find shellfish that didn't have added preservatives (such as sodium tripolyphosphate.... mmmmm......) unless I got live, and it was really rare for me to find live clams or mussels that I *trusted* (as in that didn't have a funk to them that just wasn't right for live shellfish to have). However, when I could find good ones, they would get broken down, rinsed, and finely minced. After that, the food got soaks alternating in selcon and zoe. Tangs got nori every to every other day. And, for night-time spoiling, they fish got an alternating schedule of New Life Spectrum, spirulina flakes, Ocean Nutrition, and other staples (depending on what I had in house).

See what I mean about a part of a variety diet as opposed to a solitary food source to use the proteins you find in brine shrimp while compensating for what it lacks in other nutritional values?

 

[DaveK]

Hatching out brine shrimp is not that hard, but it's a lot of work for a food with little nutrient value. Adult brine shrimp have very little. Newly hatched brine shrimp only have food value for a short period of time after hatching. Shortly, they use up all their food value by growing. Unless you really feed them, it's almost a waste to feed them to your reef.

I just go out and buy frozen foods and other prepared foods, and alternate them.

All that being said, live brine shrimp, even the newly hatched ones are often a good choice to get a finicky fish to start feeding.

 

[grgdnh]

While I agree that adult brine shrimp don't much nutritional value they can be enriched through feeding and soaking making them much more nutritional. As with any food they should not be a sole diet.

 

[sharks]

Like feeding crickets to reptiles I would suggest that you gut load the brine shrimp. Feed them some type of invert/fish food then feed the brine to the fish.