Clowns and the so call junk food....

[ctniners]

Hi Guys,
I know everywhere you go they tell you that brine shrimp is like feeding cotton candy or potato chips….good to the taste but nothing good for the body.

My question is this, when these statements are made are they talking about a plain hatched brine shrimp or are we talking about any brine fish product in the market.

For example, not to endorse anybody in particular but Bio-pure Hikari Spirulina Brine Shrimp seems to be vitamin enriched, is gut-loaded….I have a pair of clowns and I want to give them the best, I alternate between 2 kinds of frozen foods, but seeing how much they like brine shrimp (even my cleaner shrimp loves it)…should I be feeding them this type of food or should it be a blanket statement that ALL brine fish have no nutritional value to clowns or any fish in general?

Thank you for help.

 

[ocellaris123]

Brine shrimp, even the enriched stuff, has little to no nutritional value. With that being said I still use it but I also feed 7 other different types of food. Brine shrimp is good for getting finiky eaters too start eating.

 

[traveller7]

Variety.

fwiw: my clowns get a base meal of brine, including the prolific breeders. Additions to the list, cyclopeze, mysis, various flakes, lancefish, etc.

 

[ctniners]

You see, I hear that mysis shrimp are good, but my clowns dont want to eat them...so I am feeding them once per day and I alternate, one week I give them, Ocean Nutrition frozen formula VHP 2 and the next week the Bio-pure Hikari Spirulina Brine Shrimp.....I only have 2 clowns, no other fish.....is that good or should I stop giving them the brine shrimp completely???

 

[traveller7]

Variety is good, no single food will be the end all solution. Sounds like what you are doing is fine to me.

fwiw: The mysis you have might be too large at this point, freezer burned, not recognized as "food", etc. You could skip a days feeding and try a few pieces, no go, trade the mysis to a local reef keeper and potentially try a new brand or a new meal (cyclopeze). My clowns will eat Hikari, but tend to prefer PE Mysis.

 

[noboddi]

Newly hatched brine shrimp have nutrition because they still carry a yolk. Its the yolk that is nutritious not the shrimp.

I feed my clowns a little cyclop-eeze, little algae, little mysis, some flakes. Algae is their number 1 food source in the wild though, followed closely by pods. Between them its 70% of their diet

 

[small alien]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14780723#post14780723 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noboddi


I feed my clowns a little cyclop-eeze, little algae, little mysis, some flakes. Algae is their number 1 food source in the wild though, followed closely by pods. Between them its 70% of their diet

With all due respect, I've heard quite the contrary. Where did you get this information about 70% of their diet being algae and pods? Thanks.

 

[noboddi]

Frank Hoff, in Conditioning, Spawning, and Rearing of fish with an emphasis on Marine Clownfish. Long title

He quoted a study by Gerald Allen that the contents of Clown stomachs were:

35% copepods
33% Algae
3% Amphipods

10% Worms
6% crustacean fragments
5% tunicates

Then a bunch of things

 

[ctniners]

***noboddi, how do you do the algae feedings?....what kind of food you give them that contains the algae?...I dont think they would eat seaweed like tangs do correct??

***nobodi and traveller7,
never fed cyclopeze, but it seems to come in a frozen bag, how do you keep it from being freezer burn (I only feed one pair of clowns and a cleaner shrimp) and also, it seems to be microscopic crustaceus, is the food solid enough for them to grab, one time I tried to experiment and mixed some foods together and put in a food processor, the end product was too liquidy and actually was creating an issue with my water (I have a small tank)...just wondering.

Thanks again.

 

[traveller7]

Cyclopeze: Get together with a local club, you'll only need a few ounces per month.

You can buy it freeze dried and in flake form as well.

 

[noboddi]

I tried to feed my clowns nori, but the silly little things are terrified of the veggie clip. So they get Formula 2 couple times a week

Cyclop-eeze comes in many forms, I use either freeze dried or flakes