Periodic pure spirulina feedings for fry?

[tjd]

I have some pure spirulina powder. Are there issues with adding it straight to my fry tank?

For the first month or so I feed the fry straight BBS. I slowly add flake, daphnia, and eventually bloodworms as they get larger. I was thinking about adding the spirulina once every 2-3 days while they are still too small for the other foods.

I have used the powder to enrich the BBS and to raise them to adults but this gets messy and is combersome. I would prefer adding it straight to the tank as a feeding once every couple days.

Any one have an experience or thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[retro_gk]

I add some spirulina powder to the shrimp mix which forms a major part of the diet of the fish in my tanks. Never fed it straight to fish. If the fry will eat it, I don't see any harm in feeding small quantities to them.

 

[tjd]

Part of why I am checking on this is because I have gotten conflicting information on this locally and was not convincecd one way of another.

Someone at a LFS told me that spirulina can be toxic in higher quantities and recommended feeding no more than 20%. However, he could not say if this was in a single feeding (i.e. don't make a mix that uses more then 20% spirulina) or part of their general diet (i.e. pure spirulina once out of every five feedings was ok).

On one hand I have never heard of anyone feeding straight spirulina and am not aware of any fish product that is straight spirulina. On the other I am not sure how a periodic feeding of it could be bad.

Tom