Looking for Food for Shrimp

liz26914

I am currently feeding my ramshorn snails fish flakes but I want to find food for them that is rich in calcium. I found this on aquabid. AquaBid.com - Item # foodo1328431338 - 1/4 lb Kens Premium Vegetable Sticks with Calcium - Ends: Sun Feb 5 2012 - 02:42:18 AM CDT Would my snails be interested in this? Its says its for snails along with shrimp but I talked to the seller and he never tried it with snails.

redchigh

I'd just drop in an organic calcium tablet you buy from the drug store once a week.... Or buy a calcium supplement sold for reef tanks and add it at 1/4 strength.

onemanswarm

Seems expensive. I don't think I'd go so far as to invest in dedicated food for Ramshorns, personally. Have you tried blanching fresh vegetables? I have an Apple Snail and some MTS and they go crazy for blanched spinach, cucumber, you name it! If memory serves, spinach and collard greens are the two with the best ratio of calcium to phosphorus. There's a list here somewhere.

You can also try putting Tums and/or calcium supplements in the tank. A lot of people do this. I've done it a few times with some 650mg calcium pills and I'm not totally sold. The snails (and ghost shrimp) went crazy for it, but I haven't figured out all the potential negative consequences of having it settle into the substrate (waiting on an answer to that in another thread).

liz26914

I just realized tht the title of this post is wrong. oops

If I add calcium tablets, how much and how often do I put it in my 10 gal tank?

onemanswarm

Short answer is it depends on how quickly they consume it. Trial and error may be your best bet. Start small, breaking the tablets into manageable servings.

What are your water parameters (GH, KH, pH would be helpful)? The reason I ask is that if your water is relatively hard, you may already have enough calcium.

You might also reconsider the fresh vegetables. Snails really seem to appreciate it and it doesn't carry the potential negative consequences you might get with calcium tablets (cloudy water, increased hardness, potential to form dead spots in substrate).