Mysis vs Brine

McGene · Mar 8, 2019

I've often read and heard that Brine Shrimp is more like "candy" with little nutrition for our fish. Mysis shrimp are supposed to be much better.

After looking at the nutrition label on the Mysis and Brine shrimp I just bought, I'm a bit confused.
Frankly, there's virtually no difference in nutritional value:

Brine = 4.0% crude protein
Mysis = 4.2% crude protein

All other analysis is just as similar.

So, if Brine is a poor nutritional food -- I can't see Mysis being that much better.

Any suggestions on a more robust food for my fish? I'm feeding 2 clowns, 3 cardinals, 1 royal gramma, and 1 coral beauty. All are relatively small and large size foods don't work well for them.

MTBake · Mar 8, 2019

These are the 2 foods I use the most

MaiReef · Mar 8, 2019

MYSIS 6.4% protein and higher levels of good fat as well

BestMomEver · Mar 8, 2019

I’ve always heard the same as you.... choose mysis over brine. Also like you, I’ve looked into the nutritional differences and there doesn’t seem to be any. Perhaps the type of protein is the key. I used to feed nothing but mysis. Now I use a pellet or flake every few days instead of the shrimp. My understanding is that manufactured foods offer a more complete diet. Not only do you not need to feed as much but it’s cheaper in the long run. And I don’t think it really matters a lot which brand you use as long as you switch it up regularly. So, I’ll feed mysis for a few days, flakes for a day or so, maybe some pellets for a day. Fish eggs and clams are good choices too. The only thing that I consistently feed is nori on a clip. If I don’t, my tangs will fill up on meaty foods and dont get the veggies they need.

dansreef · Mar 8, 2019

My two cents worth..... Feeding your fish should be a combination of foods. I like to feed Mysis, but also a variety of Rod's Foods as well as nori and spectrum pellets. My perspective is the variety will hopefully provide needed nutrients they need. That said, I do not feed flake in shape or form and when I do feed pellets... it is usually in very small quantities.

Crabs McJones · Mar 8, 2019

Agree, i've always heard mysis is better. But I've been feeding LRS which is a huge combination of a bunch of stuff (pictured above) for a wide range of nutritional value

andrewkw · Mar 8, 2019

What kind of Mysis is only 4.2%

Besides the nutritional information just look at a defrosted Mysis vs brine. Besides the size difference the quality difference is apparent. They are so much meatier and with pe many defrost hole with eyes in tact etc.

This being said I will still occasionally feed brine but even Mysis I don’t feed even a fraction as much as I used to. These complete foods like LRS and Rods Food offer so much in one packet. It’s hard to do better then them.

McGene · Mar 8, 2019

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll look into some of the other foods mentioned here. I do feed flakes (occasionally and even some pellets). I was simply shocked at the similarity of Brine vs Mysis (at least what I bought). It does appear the PE mysis has significantly more protein than what I bought. Like all of you, I think variety is essential.
Happy Reefing!
-gene

WVNed · Mar 8, 2019

Crabs Mcjones said:
Agree, i've always heard mysis is better. But I've been feeding LRS which is a huge combination of a bunch of stuff (pictured above) for a wide range of nutritional value

I don't bother with mysis or brine anymore. LRS and seaweed.

sde1500 · Mar 8, 2019

McGene said:
Thanks for all the feedback. I'll look into some of the other foods mentioned here. I do feed flakes (occasionally and even some pellets). I was simply shocked at the similarity of Brine vs Mysis (at least what I bought). It does appear the PE mysis has significantly more protein than what I bought. Like all of you, I think variety is essential.
Happy Reefing!
-gene

I think part of the differential is how its measured. I question the massive difference between PE mysis and others. I am curious if they measure dry weight of the mysis, while others include testing with the liquid? Not sure, but its such a difference it can't just be better shrimp.

McGene · Mar 9, 2019

I did notice that the PE Mysis shrimp are freshwater grown -- while I think the others are saltwater -- not totally sure. If so, I wonder if that could explain the vast difference in nutritional value.

andrewkw · Mar 9, 2019

sde1500 said:
I think part of the differential is how its measured. I question the massive difference between PE mysis and others. I am curious if they measure dry weight of the mysis, while others include testing with the liquid? Not sure, but its such a difference it can't just be better shrimp.

I haven't seen another company show their collection and preservation methods.

McGene said:
I did notice that the PE Mysis shrimp are freshwater grown -- while I think the others are saltwater -- not totally sure. If so, I wonder if that could explain the vast difference in nutritional value.

Mysis are freshwater. Mysids - the little guys you see in reefs sometimes are marine. I'm pretty sure all or at least most of the frozen are true mysis but I believe it's just the type, size and collection and preservation methods PE use that make them superior to most if not all other ones. I believe hikari do have a similar product but I'm not sure if it's from the same lake.

McGene · Mar 10, 2019

Thanks, Andrew. Marvelous video.

Slim64684 · Mar 11, 2019

FWIW got my frozen mysis out to feed tonight and snapped a pic of the nutritional info

McGene · Mar 11, 2019

Dang. 3.7% protein!
I’m gonna try PE next time.
I’m assuming higher protein should be better but honestly I have no idea what my fish actually eat in the wild.

Mykawl · Aug 18, 2019

Rip me neither my LFS or Petsmart Carey this PE brand. Also Larry’s>Rods?

vangvace · Aug 19, 2019

Mykawl said:
Rip me neither my LFS or Petsmart Carey this PE brand. Also Larry’s>Rods?

Larry and Rods can be like Ford v Chevy. Both have versions that will work better for your tank than others.

BRS does ship frozen foods at a $40 premium for the box, but you can load up the frozen box with quite a bit of product.

reefwreak · Aug 19, 2019

You can also wait for LiveAquaria to have one of their frozen food sales, and including shipping it works out to a few bucks less than LFS prices for PE mysis. I bought PE/Calanus packs from them at Reefapalooza last year directly, and then when those two packs ran out, I waited for a LA sale, and bought probably 8 dual packs or so and have been going on that since then. I feed one PE mysis and one PE Calanus (I miss Cyclopeeze) cube per night, every few nights I soak them in Selcon, and every other few nights I feed nori strips.

I need to try LSR Reef Frenzy one of these days. Rod's food makes my skimmer explode consistently. Also next time I order food, It'll be from my former source in South FL, Roggers Reef Food, who makes an awesome mixture that pre-dates LRS and Rods. He used to make these batch foods almost 15 years ago now and sell them to local reefers and friends, now does it at scale and distributes across the country. Too bad none of my LFS carry it here even though I keep asking.

shred5 · Aug 19, 2019

Slim64684 said:
FWIW got my frozen mysis out to feed tonight and snapped a pic of the nutritional info

That pack shows 92 percent moisture which to me means that pack has allot of water in it and that is not the actual percentage of protein in the shrimp.

The P/E is dry weight...

Also brine can be somewhat nutritious if they are gut stuffed/enriched before feeding..