How Often To Feed Frozen Brine Shrimp

Hey,

I finally gave in to trying frozen foods, and I bought two packs of frozen brine shrimp. My fish seem to absolutely love it! How often should I be feeding it to my guppies? I have a bunch of variety (quality flakes, staple food, sinking pellets, etc.), should frozen brine be the main source of food or just a treat/snack?

On another note, I have been using mesh bags with zip ties to fry-safe my Sunsun 303b intake. I need to change them out daily or else it clogs up and doesn't suck up any water, and I can't find any good prefilters at my LFS or online that go with my canister intake. Was wondering if anyone knew some good ones, I found a few but they don't deliver to my country .

 

Hey,

I finally gave in to trying frozen foods, and I bought two packs of frozen brine shrimp. My fish seem to absolutely love it! How often should I be feeding it to my guppies? I have a bunch of variety (quality flakes, staple food, sinking pellets, etc.), should frozen brine be the main source of food or just a treat/snack?

On another note, I have been using mesh bags with zip ties to fry-safe my Sunsun 303b intake. I need to change them out daily or else it clogs up and doesn't suck up any water, and I can't find any good prefilters at my LFS or online that go with my canister intake. Was wondering if anyone knew some good ones, I found a few but they don't deliver to my country .

So I also tried frozen foods for my fish. I went with blood worms at first, I was told by another member to just feed as a treat. Once a week I feed it to my mollies & cories. Preferably I do it the night before my gravel Vacuuming because some frozens are messy. About fry-proofing your intake, I bought a few different sized Fluval sponges, I cut them to the size I needed, stabbed a hole in it, and slid it over my intake, no problems so far, BUT I have HOB filters. Buying square sponges & cutting them has actually worked better for me than buying the round pre-cut ones made for it, because the black round sponge in the below photo- it is too big & falls off intake tube a lot. & the worst issue I've had is that the white sponges turn brown within 1 month.

 

My wife feeds all the guppies rotating Frozen Brine and Blood Worms every night. Granted all that's put in the tank is gone before it hits the floor of the tank. Probably 20 seconds til it's gone. You can do it daily. Many prefer not to because it's messy. We feed the frozen at night, and dry food in the morning. Very small amounts. If you go that route, you may get a small container for the remainders if you use the cubes. You don't want to use a whole cube unless you have like 6 tanks to feed.

If getting your hands on special baffles for your intake is tough for you, maybe try cheese cloth. You can single cover, or double it up. I've went that route before. I used fishing line to secure it. I did change it once a week, when I did my WC's and weekly cleaning.

 

I turn my filter down when I feed so it doesn't go everywhere and stays in the middle up front.

 

So I also tried frozen foods for my fish. I went with blood worms at first, I was told by another member to just feed as a treat. Once a week I feed it to my mollies & cories. Preferably I do it the night before my gravel Vacuuming because some frozens are messy. About fry-proofing your intake, I bought a few different sized Fluval sponges, I cut them to the size I needed, stabbed a hole in it, and slid it over my intake, no problems so far, BUT I have HOB filters. Buying square sponges & cutting them has actually worked better for me than buying the round pre-cut ones made for it, because the black round sponge in the below photo- it is too big & falls off intake tube a lot. & the worst issue I've had is that the white sponges turn brown within 1 month.

Thank you for the tips! One month seems like heaven compared to mine turning brown the same night, then needing to be replaced the next morning . I'll definitely try that, thank you.

My wife feeds all the guppies rotating Frozen Brine and Blood Worms every night. Granted all that's put in the tank is gone before it hits the floor of the tank. Probably 20 seconds til it's gone. You can do it daily. Many prefer not to because it's messy. We feed the frozen at night, and dry food in the morning. Very small amounts. If you go that route, you may get a small container for the remainders if you use the cubes. You don't want to use a whole cube unless you have like 6 tanks to feed.

If getting your hands on special baffles for your intake is tough for you, maybe try cheese cloth. You can single cover, or double it up. I've went that route before. I used fishing line to secure it. I did change it once a week, when I did my WC's and weekly cleaning.

I have a heavily stocked tank, so I been using 1-2 cubes every feeding and it always gets eaten before it hits the floor. Given I usually pour in increments, but they eat it all. I might cut down to 1 cube instead of 2 though, I was still adjusting the amounts since I'm new to frozen foods. Thanks for the tips .

 

Good call on the 1 cube probably. If you put too much in, one or two things can happen. Tank can get nasty (ie: Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate) which wouldn't be ideal if you're already heavily stocked, and the other, you'll be naming all your female guppies "Big Bertha".

 

One thing you can do is buy them as "flats" of the frozen food, that way you can break off the amount you need rather than a full cube. I've been going this method on all my frozen foods now.

 

Blood worms are fattier than brine shrimp. The "only as a treat" tip you hear was likely blood worm specific, not a general rule for frozen food. Frozen brine is about 50% of my fishes diet.

 

Blood worms are fattier than brine shrimp. The "only as a treat" tip you hear was likely blood worm specific, not a general rule for frozen food. Frozen brine is about 50% of my fishes diet.

TY, Interesting to know! I remember having both packs in my hand, Omega One Frozen Blood Worms & Omega One Frozen Brine Shrimp, debating & the clerk said the corys love them when she feeds, that's how I ended up with mine.

 

A tip for breaking the cubes, use a screwdriver I find that easier & less messy than a knife. Also leave it in the plastic thing it comes in to do it, if you’re like me & try doing it when it’s out it shoots across the room!

 

Lucky for me, my wife was a cook for 20 or so years. She does them with a parring knife. 2 minutes and an entire cube is a slushy

 

I get the mini cubes that are 1/2 the size of the big ones. They are the perfect size for my 55g. I do both 1 -Brine 1 -Bloodworm a few days a week.

 

I have 12 almost fully grown tiger barbs. They are aggressive eaters and I just put the whole frozen cube in about 1 or 2 times a week.
The cube is completey gone is seconds, not minutes and its fun to watch them go after the brine shrimp and blood worms.
I could give 2 cubes, but have decided not to.

 

Tips on making your own pre filters .
I got the large slabs of foam from a second hand Fluval tank that had an inbuilt filter.
After cutting a 70mm x 70mm square i used a red hot wire to burn a nice round hole. I had to heat the wire with flame multiple times burn a 1 cm diameter hole.

 

I was wondering what people's thoughts were on frozen baby brine shrimp. I currently have breeding guppies, and soon will have a pair of breeding apistos and a group of kribensis. I was wondering if the fry will readily accept frozen baby brine shrimp and grow well on it. I know most people use brine shrimp hatchers but I'm not quite ready to invest in that yet. The other thought was I would buy dedicated fry food. Thanks in advance!

 

Havent used frozen before but I do use bbs from a jar that you keep in the fridge, so is probably similar. Ive had no issues with fry accepting that so far which is good because i cant be bothered hatching my own.

Mix it up a bit though with different foods for them - crushed flakes/pellets, infusoria etc.

 

Havent used frozen before but I do use bbs from a jar that you keep in the fridge, so is probably similar. Ive had no issues with fry accepting that so far which is good because i cant be bothered hatching my own.

Mix it up a bit though with different foods for them - crushed flakes/pellets, infusoria etc.

So it's just refrigerated brine shrimp or are you talking brine shrimp eggs that you refrigerate? I didn't know there was a refrigerated one other than the eggs

 

So it's just refrigerated brine shrimp or are you talking brine shrimp eggs that you refrigerate? I didn't know there was a refrigerated one other than the eggs

Yep - ocean nutrition do it in a jar. Lasts around 6 weeks once open. Handy for lazy people like me!

 

Yep - ocean nutrition do it in a jar. Lasts around 6 weeks once open. Handy for lazy people like me!

Interesting, thanks for sharing this!

 

I buy this same stuff for my fish too! Really handy and they seem to love it too.

 

For dwarf cichlid fry live BBS are definitely the best food possible, especially as the fry might not react to non-moving food.
It's only a bit of work. Well, to me just 15min to set it up and 15min to clean it out after use, inbetween the hatchery is a set and forget-thing.
But be it a DIY setup or a storebought hatchery, depending on how much you need, a pack of Artemia eggs can last you over a year when you hatch them yourself.

 

Hi all,
sfletch77 As soon as you see the size of apistogramma fry you will see you are dealing with a totally different game. Depending of the species of baby brine you have they may be the same size as a newly hatched Apistogramma fry?

I have seen frozen bb and feed is to juveniles. It’s a dead food that doesn’t move. When the juveniles are eating stuff that doesn’t wriggle it a reasonable substitute but very expensive, at least in my country?

Raising bb daily need not be much more than 15 minutes work per day. They can be raised in any container including an old boot ( see video) You will however need a sieve as using coffee papers is time consuming. What does take time day after day is feeding 4 times per day. Unlike live bearers ( guppies) that take care of themselves.IMO.

There are dozens of videos on raising bb in any old container. This one is meant to be light hearted?