Is there such a thing as too much baby brine shrimp?

[Andrew H]

Title pretty much covers it. I’ve been keeping BBS hatching regularly to feed my borellii fry (now juveniles) and all the fish seem to love it (have some rummynose tetras and chili rasbora too). I also feed some frozen food (myesis shrimp, cyclops) and some crumbled bug bites from time to time) but I’d estimate 90% of their diet is BBS at this point…

 

[Apistoguy52]

I don’t believe in such a thing. There have been points in my hobby, where 3 or 4 generations of Apistogramma ate only BBS. If I recall correctly, there’s something from Romer on the topic that portrays BBS as the Apistogramma food supreme.

 

[Andrew H]

Good to hear! It’s easy enough so I’ll keep hatching.

 

[Ben Rhau]

BBS is an excellent food, but it's low in highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA). In <killifish>, HUFA deficiencies have been observed to impair growth and health. The same has been <characterized in commercial fish husbandry>.

The mysis you feed is likely high in HUFA. I tend to supplement the diet with some kind of worms (grindals or blackworms) once or twice a week. I'd chop them or only feed the small ones to your chilis or juveniles. Microworms are good for fry, and your corys will like them too.

If you don't want to culture worms, Hikari sells tubifex in the frozen cube format. I haven't used it, though.

 

[Andrew H]

Nice, thanks Ben. I may be burning a bridge too far with my wife if I establish live worm cultures but I will investigate! In the meantime I’ll keep the mysis going. Hikari has their standard version and then these monster “Lake Okenegan” variants that are supposedly both invasive and more nutritious.

 

[Jacobus]

My 30 days old A.sp. Juruá have lived on BBS only until 3 days ago. I now alternate a BBS meal with a meal of the tiniest cyclops. It is excellent exercise for the fry as cyclops are fast and often successfully avoid being eaten. The fry have to really hunt for a meal. It is a pleasure to see. Nutritionally speaking I assume the more varied diet cannot harm.

 

[Andrew H]

I’ve got frozen cyclops in the mix too!

 

[Jacobus]

Frozen, nutritionally just as good as fresh I assume, but not so fast (grin)