Using mysis shrimp as live in food

[zsly]

Can I keep mysis shrimp in my tank with dwarf seahorses? Would it be safe to do so? My idea is that as the mysis shrimp reproduce the babies will float around and be eaten by the sea horses. Does this work? I do still plan on feeding them bbs and just thought it would be a good extra source of food for them.

 

[fishywishy]

Im pretty sure mysis shrimp are freshwater shrimp so you either need to get mysid shrimp or brine shrimp.

It should work if you are able to get some mysids or brine shrimp, but they required pods to survive and breed.

 

[vlangel]

What about grass/ghost shrimp? They can live in salinity that is .023.

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

Following

 

[sixty_reefer]

They would most likely be eaten before have a chance to reproduce unless you were considering making a separate tank for them.
I haven’t seen the saltwater species for sale although I have noticed that you can get them sometimes in LFS as hitchhiking under rocks, I have a few in mine.

 

[DoktorZhivago]

You can cultivate mysis or brine shrimp but you would need to do it in a separate tank. Their care requirements will not match up with the seahorses needs and you will also not be able to cultivate enough in the display tank to make the seahorses happy. they are filter feeders and require food to be introduced to the water column which will also pollute your display tank.

At one time I cultived brine shrimp and enriched their diet with all kinds of stuff (brine shrimp direct has some great products and foods for this) but it was kind of a pain to keep them from crashing because they need very particular particle sizes for grazing at different stages of their larval life cycles. I assume mysis are similar. It ended up just being easier to buy frozen adult mysis and brine and feed freshly hatched bbs if needed.

 

[vlangel]

You can cultivate mysis or brine shrimp but you would need to do it in a separate tank. Their care requirements will not match up with the seahorses needs and you will also not be able to cultivate enough in the display tank to make the seahorses happy. they are filter feeders and require food to be introduced to the water column which will also pollute your display tank.

At one time I cultived brine shrimp and enriched their diet with all kinds of stuff (brine shrimp direct has some great products and foods for this) but it was kind of a pain to keep them from crashing because they need very particular particle sizes for grazing at different stages of their larval life cycles. I assume mysis are similar. It ended up just being easier to buy frozen adult mysis and brine and feed freshly hatched bbs if needed.

I too tried to culture brine shrimp but had the same experience of them crashing and found it easier just to buy them.
I had kept grass shrimp in a separate tank for the big seahorses for when I went away. They were easy to keep in a 5 or 10 gallon with some macroalgae and an air pump. I would feed them fish flake or pellets and they lived a long time. I could dump 20 or so in the seahorse tank so we could leave for the weekend and that worked pretty well.