Amphipods, copepods, brineshrimp

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

So i know all of these things eat phytoplankton.. if I didn't buy phytoplankton would these animals be able to survive off of fish food? I've also heard that brine shrimp will eat powdered milk and yeast so just want to get some verification on that...

ahmed.boomer · Oct 8, 2015

I feed brine shrimp on wheat flour and yeast. There probably is better things to feed them though. Amphipods and copepods can survive on nutrients and detritus in your tank, given your tank is large enough and nothing is preventing them from propagating (wrasse, mandarin).

Edit: I'm not feeding brine shrimp in the tank wheat flour and yeast. It's the ones I'm raising.

ReefMadScientist · Oct 8, 2015

I've never fed my brine shrimp in my tank and I have thousands of them. When the lights are off, use a red flashlight and you can see their little eye balls light up.

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

ahmed.boomer said:
I feed brine shrimp on wheat flour and yeast. There probably is better things to feed them though. Amphipods and copepods can survive on nutrients and detritus in your tank, given your tank is large enough and nothing is preventing them from propagating (wrasse, mandarin).

UT oh that's not going to happen I have 4 bottom feeders 2 mandarins and 2 scooter blennys.. yeah wheat flour is on that list too... if I put some in my 20 gallon is there a good chance all three of those things could survive?

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

ReefMadScientist said:
I've never fed my brine shrimp in my tank and I have thousands of them. When the lights are off, use a red flashlight and you can see their little eye balls light up.

I have some coming today... so if I put a good amount in there will some of them hide or do they constantly swim? (Idk never seen them alive)

ReefMadScientist · Oct 8, 2015

bremort93 said:
I have some coming today... so if I put a good amount in there will some of them hide or do they constantly swim? (Idk never seen them alive)

Add it to your refugium. They will make their way into your tank when ready.

I added a bag of Reef Stew to my refugium and that was all. Months later, I now have TONS of them coming out and running around at night.

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

OK Thank you!! I seen a way to make one out of an old ten gallon so I will have to get on that!

cloak · Oct 8, 2015

Don't brine shrimp prefer a much higher salinity than what we keep our tanks at? Are you sure your not talking about Mysid shrimp? These will hitchhike there way into our tanks via live rock and corals. If conditions are right the population can become quite large as well.
I just don't think I've ever heard of anybody keeping brine shrimp in their reef tanks before.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-02/rs/index.php

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

Do they?!! Idk the things I've read said brine shrimp.. I can look at something and find out about the salinity.. if so I could still just put them in smaller tank.

bremort93 · Oct 8, 2015

I just compared them to clownfish..
Clownfish need 1.020-1.025
Brineshrimp ... 1.015-1.030

ahmed.boomer · Oct 8, 2015

cloak said:
Don't brine shrimp prefer a much higher salinity than what we keep our tanks at? Are you sure your not talking about Mysid shrimp? These will hitchhike there way into our tanks via live rock and corals. If conditions are right the population can become quite large as well.
I just don't think I've ever heard of anybody keeping brine shrimp in their reef tanks before.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-02/rs/index.php

They usually won't make it past a day or so in my aquarium. They either get picked off or die. Usually you want to house them in a separate tank.

bremort93 · Oct 22, 2015

With shipping they died got them yesterday.. they were all healthy ND I put some in a breeder net... they were fine however I did feed them a lot of yeast... anyway the 100 that were alive died this morning.. Idky. . They started like bundling up together and all were in a weird string stuck together?