can i feed my fish live shrimp

[Jamie Tuck and son Devin]

i have a clown goby,small clownfish and a longnose hawkfish, and i want to know if i can feed them live brine shrimp

 

[Anonymous]

of course.

 

[trido]

of course.

Ditto

 

[metalac]

live brine is used to get the previously free swimming fish to start feeding in a captive environment. So yeah just like it was said above

 

[Anonymous]

But it should be noted that unless the brine is "gut loaded", i.e. fed extra nutrients before being fed to the fish they aren't very nutritious. Sort of like popcorn, tastes great but in the long run not good as a sole source.

They are good to use as an "appetizer" to get the fishes' feeding response in gear when you are trying to get them onto frozen foods, which are better for them but take some getting used to.

 

[rayjay]

In actual fact, brine shrimp are not devoid of nutrition like many have been posting for so long.
Adult live brine shrimp from Great Salt Lake cysts will have protein levels in the high 50% range based on dry weight percentages. Gut loading can either improve this figure, or increase the lipid content, or can be used to get vitamins or medications to your fish.
For all the facts available from the most reliable source, see the article by the Artemia Reference Centre at the University of Ghent, posted on the United Nations articles on Live Foods for Aquaculture.
CLICK HERE AND SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION 4.0, ARTEMIA

Specifically check out the sections on Nutrition.

 

[Anonymous]

Freshly hatched and fed at that time, I agree. However, most people don't go that route and buy the ones hatched out and refridgerated at the LFS, or frozen which quality is dependent on manufacturer.

 

[extremepb319]

Go for it

 

[rayjay]

Freshly hatched and fed at that time, I agree. However, most people don't go that route and buy the ones hatched out and refridgerated at the LFS, or frozen which quality is dependent on manufacturer.

I had assumed he was wanting to add live adult brine shrimp either from an LFS or from LiveBrineshrimp.com but maybe I am wrong.
The protein level of newly hatched nauplii is high in lipids, and low in protein.
As they proceed through the molts, they become higher in protein and lower in lipids. The percentage I spoke of for protein in my previous post was for live adult shrimp raised from GSL cysts.
If one wants to feed newborns to fish, (many fish aren't too interested in these but many corals and inverts go for them) it's actually better to just decap the cysts and add them to the tank because the egg sack will then be completely intact. If adding nauplii, the sack consumption begins immediately so that depending on how long after hatching the shrimp gets eaten, the nutrient value can be much less.