What Do Baby Shrimp Eat? Ultimate Guide to Feeding Your Tiny Shrimp Babies

  Add lots of moss and plants  Ensure good water circulation  Maintain pristine water quality  Use a breeding net or separate tank

Feeding your baby shrimps

In the first few days of life, newly hatched baby shrimp almost do not move from the spot where they left the mother. This behavior can have life-threatening consequences. They can starve to death if there is no food around them. Even sufficient food is no guarantee for successful feeding if there is none in the specific position.

This can be the case with newly set-up and well-maintained aquariums, where every tiny biofilm coating on hardscape and glass is immediately removed. Baby shrimp also feed on biofilm, which is formed in every aquarium. Still, the development of this food source takes time. Therefore, it is advisable to always add specialized baby shrimp food to aquariums that are running for less than six months. Moreover, supplementary bacterial products, such as GlasGarten BacterAE, can be added to increase and stabilize the biofilm.

The food should have the right size and composition for the small shrimps to contain all the necessary nutrients. For this reason, we rely on the GlasGarten Shrimp Baby Food. Depending on how strong your filtration is, a large part of the food may be sucked in directly by the filter.

It is, therefore, advisable to switch off the filter shortly before feeding and keep it this way for about 15-20 minutes. In case of doing so, remember to switch the filter back on; set an alarm clock! This way, the food can settle and has a much better chance of reaching the hungry babies. To make it more targeted, use a pipette to distribute the food.

A few leaves are also quite useful for a shrimp aquarium because dried leaves such as Catappa leaves are a good shrimp food that does not pollute the water. The leaves also release important tannins and humic substances into the water, which are beneficial for the shedding process of your shrimp.

There are a few things we can actively do to increase the survival rate of tiny baby shrimps significantly.

Predators – All livestock species, mainly fish, which feed on carnivorous food, are fundamentally not averse if baby shrimps end up on their menu. It can be assumed that whatever fits into a fishs mouth and does not disappear fast enough will be eaten. Therefore, inform yourself beforehand if you want to socialize dwarf shrimp with other creatures. Like most Boraras species, small-bodied fish are a healthy choice because even small baby shrimp wont fit into their tiny mouths. Except for the predatory Anentome helena, many snail species like Vittina waigiensis, Clithon corona, or Ramshorn snail can also be kept wonderfully with dwarf shrimp.

This category includes filters, water-changing equipment, and skimmers. Among all technical components, some aquarium filters and explicitly their suction point can be titled as baby shrimps number one mortal enemy. Even adult shrimp are not always able to avoid this danger altogether. If you keep shrimp, providing your filter inflow with suitable protection guards is recommended. For filter inflows, there are special filter guards in different sizes. Also, some internal filters, like the Dennerle Nano corner filter, have separate suction guards. Suppose there is no suitable protection device for your filter. In that case, you can also cover and protect most suction sites with a nylon stocking.

Water changes are both a blessing and a curse for tiny shrimp. The joy of fresh water is great, but the siphoning of the water must first survive without damage. The shrimp babies are sometimes easily overlooked and involuntary journey through the suction hose. If the water lands in a bucket first, there is still a chance of rescue, but if the extracted water lands directly in the drain, there is no coming back.

There is no optimal solution here because, with a water change, we would like to remove the water and from the bottom as much organic waste as possible. Assuming you tie a fine-mesh nylon stocking in front of the suction pipe. The suction of waste particles is challenging.

Also, aquarium skimmers are tasked with keeping the aquarium water surface clean, but they can become a source of danger for all shrimps. Like the aquarium filters, there are suitable guards for some skimmer models so that, at best, no livestock gets sucked into them. Nevertheless, it is advisable to control the skimmer with a timer so that inactive periods occur. At least stronger shrimps can then crawl out of the skimmer device.

Starting from water temperatures of approx. 25 °C more sensitive shrimps can already get problems with the lower oxygen level, which decreases gradually with rising temperature. Therefore, cooling in summer is usually more critical for a shrimp aquarium than heating in winter. By the way, continuous cooling can be achieved quite well with special aquarium coolers; adult shrimp also benefit from this.

Pesticides On Newly Purchased Plants

Potted or in bunches, grown aquarium plants are often treated with pesticides in the nurseries before export to prevent the spread of harmful organisms. Pesticides are quite harmless to fish but toxic and deadly to shrimp and other crustaceans. Plants cultivated in Asia are especially treated with pesticides, like plant bunches, which originate almost exclusively from Asian nurseries. But do not think you are safe if you only buy plants from nurseries outside Asia. Almost all aquatic plant nurseries complement their plant assortment with plants from Asia.

What can you do?

• Before adding potted plants to your aquarium, please keep them in a container for at least three days. If you are lucky, it has already been done at the retailers sales aquarium. That procedure helps to wash out possible toxic residues.
• Ask how long the plant has been in the retail aquarium when buying.
• As a shrimp keeper, stay away from cheap bunch plants. These originate from Asia and are guaranteed to have been treated with pesticides.
• Try to plant all or most of your shrimp aquarium with tissue culture plants (in-vitro). Such laboratory plants are 100% guaranteed to be free of dangerous and toxic substances.

Why are my baby shrimp dying? – HELP MORE OF YOUR BABY SHRIMP SURVIVE WITH THESE 4 TIPS & TRICKS