Stupid question regarding food color and coral/nem colors.

[alcimedes]

I have some freshwater shrimp tanks that I'm using to breed some blue shrimp.

There are two tanks, one with the main stock, and another tank of culls. The cull tank has somewhere around 500+ shrimp in it if I had to guess. Once or twice a week, I'll see a dead shrimp in the cull tank.

My question is two fold.

Are there any issues with feeding freshly dead freshwater shrimp to marine creatures? I assume not but thought I should ask. Google didn't yield much info.

Second, would feeding brightly colored shrimp to my nems/lps leading to brighter coloration as they eat the blue/red shrimp?

Sorry if they're stupid questions, but I wasn't able to find the answer anywhere.

 

[Sk8r]

I take it these shrimp are naturally blue. I'd be a little careful tossing something naturally deceased into my tank, but if it's not molded or slimy, probably ok. Affect the coloration, no, not likely Nem coloration I'd expect comes from its internal bacteria and the light they use.

 

[alcimedes]

The shrimp are naturally blue.

Typically I check on my tanks each day, in this case the shrimp haven't been dead too long, less than 4 hours most likely. I presume one or two deaths per week out of hundreds of shrimp isn't a sign of disease or infection.

I feel wasteful flushing the shrimp while at the same time paying money for frozen shrimp from an unknown source. I have piles of shrimp right in my tanks that I know are eating well and in clean water.

I presumed it wouldn't matter the food source color for the marine animals in question, but freshwater fish can start to take on the coloration of things they eat, so figured I should at least ask.

 

[billdogg]

For a very rare change I have to disagree with Sk8r. Feeding anything freshwater to a marine creature should be avoided because of the different fatty acids they contain. I certainly wouldn't feed one that has died in your freshwater system. What killed it? Disease? parasite? I would be afraid to even take the chance.

jm.02

 

[Fish finder]

I know that some fish develop different colored meat based on diet, and the meat returns to normal "white" color when the diet changes back

 

[Sk8r]

I'll cheerfully defer to billdogg on this. I don't mix my tanks, just because I'm a nervous Nellie, but billdogg cites an actual reason, and I'd agree with him.

 

[GimpyFin]

It might be ok to feed to marine fish, but I guess it would depend of what type of shrimp it is. I'd probably be a little leery myself. Though, at least some of the frozen fare we feed our fish (Like PE Mysis) are freshwater species.

 

[alcimedes]

I was thinking of mysis in particular when I decided to try it.

The shrimp in question I believe are dying from age. They're full grown adults that are dying, and there are tons of baby shrimp and active breeding going on, lots of molting so everyone generally seems happy.

I just think that with 500+ shrimp in a tank, you'll lose 1 or 2 a week due to age.

typically infections/disease have much higher mortality, hits all ages of shrimp, and you'll typically see a halt in reproduction unless the shrimp are happy.

Is there a way to find out if the meat/fatty acids of mysis are similar to neocardina?

Edit:

So i did find a thread here from 2012 with someone asking the same question. This response I found interesting, as my understanding is seahorses are pretty picky and hard to keep fed.

FWIW a shop here in Stockholm fed & bred seahorses with surplus cherry- and crystal red/black shrimp. So they can't be too nutritionally unbalanced

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2114367

same concerns regarding fatty acids raised there as well, don't see as there's a specific answer either. if anyone stumbles across that answer I'd love to know.

 

[Sk8r]

Curiously, I've had mysis-type critters breeding IN my saltwater tank. It doesn't seem freshwater to me.

 

[alcimedes]

Curiously, I've had mysis-type critters breeding IN my saltwater tank. It doesn't seem freshwater to me.

I just asked my LFS owner about that the other day. She said that the shrimp sold in stores are the larger, freshwater Mysis shrimp, the smaller saltwater ones that breed in marine tanks are Mysid shrimp.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=924567

sounds like they're just common names for a variety of different types of copepods, but the bulk ones purchased in stores are freshwater to the best of my knowledge.