Is brine shrimp good for aquarium fish? Truth has been revealed
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You must know that the brine shrimp is one of the best live foods of any type of aquarium fish and here is why this is the best
Baby fish needs lots of protein and lipids to grow faster but it can’t able to take frozen food just because of its size so a live micro food can be a great substitute and among all types of live food brine shrimp is the best just because of its protein percentage (61.6%). It helps to fill the gaps of nutrients in other foods.
But that’s not the only thing to know about brine shrimp you know. You must know about it comprehensively which will help to make a good diet plan for your fish and now in this article we’re going to know about it more
So without wasting much time let’s dive deep into the topic
Why brine shrimp is good for baby fish?
You can feed your fish a whole lot of foods but those foods will not be an ideal or complete food. According to that topic, brine shrimp is a complete food just because of its nutrient value.
It has a higher percentage of protein which is very good for baby fish to grow faster because at the early stage it can’t eat other types of fish food just because of its size. So it needs some micro food that can provide all types of nutrients and brine shrimp is exceptional.
But you can give micro worms to your baby fish but that will not provide calcium to your baby fish just because these are nematodes. But brine shrimp can provide calcium also and a newborn fish needs calcium most to grow a strong spine.
Read more:- How long does it take aquarium fish to grow? with a comparison chart
Another thing is that when you put micro worms into the water then it will sink rather than suspend on the surface of the water and some you baby fish may not go down into the deep water to eat the food and that’s why lots of foods get wasted but brine shrimp is not like that and baby fishes like this the most.
Here is the chart where you can see the percentage of nutrients in brine shrimp that your baby fish will get after eating it
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Brine shrimp nutrient percentage |
|
| 1. Protein | 61.6% |
| 2. Intravenous lipid emulsion | 3.8% |
| 3. Leucine | 8.9% |
| 4. Phenylalanine | 4.9% |
| 5. Tyrosine | 5.4% |
| 6. Lysine | 8.9% |
| 7. Calcium | 5% |
| 8. Arginine | 7.3% |
| 9. Glutamic acid | 12.9% |
| 10. Glycine | 5% |
From this chart, you can know how important the brine shrimp is. Right? If you skip this for your fish then you may miss some good nutritious food. It will help your fish to grow faster than anything.
How many times you should provide brine shrimp as food?
Basically, for baby fishes, you can give brine shrimp as much as you can because at this time these are hungry always and you must give some extra food to grow faster.
But I will recommend a minimum of twice a day to a maximum of four times a day. That is enough for baby fishes in your aquarium. But this may vary from fish to fish. If you tons of baby fish in an aquarium then you have to provide more than four times a day.
What are the drawbacks of brine shrimp?
Brine shrimp has drawbacks also but these are so little related to its advantages. But you should know it before using it as food for your baby fish.
- Brine shrimp is micro live food and this is only for baby fish
- Brine shrimp can’t able to provide nutrition to adult fishes
- Eggs of brine shrimp need 24 hours to hatch which is a little bit headache
- Only brine shrimp is not so effective for baby fish as food
- Brine shrimp is a little bit expensive
- Only one or two aquarium owners should not use it. This is for those who have more than two fish tanks.
Read more:- what are the best foods for aquarium fishes? learn if you are new in this hobby
How to feed brine shrimp to fishes?
There are two ways which you can apply for your fishes to feed them. Now I’ll discuss those ways. You must find which will be suitable for you. So let’s start
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Buy instant baby brine shrimp
This is one of the best ways to feed brine shrimp to your fish because in this way you don’t need to buy lots of products to feed it. Only you need this instant baby brine shrimp product and you can feed your fish easily.
But before buying this product you must know that this is not a live food product. This is hydrated dead brine shrimp. Already this is a ready-made food for fish. You don’t need to do anything about it. Just you need to take this with a spoon and mix it up with water and then you put it into your aquarium. This is the perfect food for larvae, fish fry, small fish and aquatic organisms.
One thing you need to remember is that you must keep it under the refrigerator after opening it once. But try to use it 6 weeks after opening. Go and check the most recent discounted price on Amazon here.
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Use brine shrimp egg
The 2nd way is to hatch brine shrimp eggs to get live brine shrimp food for your fish. This is a little bit tougher than the 1st method but if you have lots of aquariums and fish then you have to buy brine shrimp eggs because this will give you a hatch it by maintaining your time and wastage will be less.
To apply this method you need first brine shrimp eggs and then you need a hatchery kit for those eggs. Pequot brine shrimp egg is good for all breeders. In this product, you will get brine shrimp eggs as capsules. Check its discounted price on Amazon here.
To hatch these capsules you need some hatchery kits. Among these kits, you can buy this brine shrimp egg incubator from Amazon. The specialty of this incubator is you don’t need to be an expert to hatch eggs. This is user friendly
One thing you remember is that you must add 10gram coarse salt with the water in this incubator before putting capsules. The water temperature should be from 28°C – 30°C. You have to put one or two capsules in this incubator and it will take 36-48 hours to incubate.
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Final thoughts
I hope you have understood whether brine shrimp is good for your fish or not. This is a very good food product for baby fish. This works as great substitute food for baby fish as it can’t able to eat all types of flakes and pellets. So try this to provide more calcium, protein-lipid to your baby fish to grow faster.
So best of luck & happy fishkeeping🐟