Enriching Frozen Brine Shrimp Question

[roibenami]

Ok, so i know everyone always says that brine shrimp has low nutritional value.. so I usually feed my tank mysis instead. but there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to both...

The brine shrimp are all the same size while the mysis ranges from large to very small... when I feed mysis my fish usually go after the large pieces and the small pieces just go uneaten... When I feed brine the fish eat all the pieces and they love it a lot more...

Lately I've been starting to feed brine shrimp instead of mysis because I ran out and I was wondering If I can continue to just feed the brine...

I defrost and rinse a cube of brine shrimp (the brine shrimp is ocean's nutrition and it says it's enriched with spirolina and garlic). I drop a couple of drops of Aquaforest Fish V on the brine shrimp... let it soak in it for 5 minutes and then feed the tank.

I know for a fact that the Aquaforest Fish V supplement is added to the brine shrimp because when I throw the brine shrimp to the tank they actually glow under the actinics so I can see the Fish V is inside the shrimp when the fish eat it.

I do that twice a day, I don't feed anything else and I wanted to ask if this should be able to maintain a complete diet for the fish or do I have to supplement with other foods as well?

My fish are also getting natural food from grazing on the rocks... They pick at stuff all the time and I can visually see tons of pods on the glass...

Here is my fish list if it's relevent, they all eat brine and mysis...

Copperband Butterfly
Melanurus Wrasse
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Cleaner Wrasse
Pair of Bengai Cardinals
Diamond Goby
Lawnmower Blenny (doesn't eat prepared foods yet but he's new and there's enough algae for him)

Thank you very much!!

 

[Cment]

I think temporarily feeding it is fine and the fact your adding a vitamin supplement to the food definitely helps. But I would suggest getting a variety of food for a well balance diet for the fish. If you don't want to have all these different foods in your freezer then buy a quality frozen that has a wide variety of ingredients like LRS or Rods. If you have the time and patience you could even make your own. Personally I would never feed just one food exclusively and try to mix in another along with a quality pellet or flake.

 

[roibenami]

Well... what really is a balanced diet? The brine shrimp contains protein and carbs, the spirolina (if it was enriched properly...) should contain fiber and the aquaforest fish V contains 9 different vitamins and 9 different amino acids...

I would think (and this is based on nothing) that stuff like minerals and trace elements like iron, magnesium, calcium and stuff like that would be consumed via "drinking" from the water column... since the water the fish live in is full of these elements...

Does anyone know what other foods have that the fish need other than what I just listed? If anyone with some nutrition knowledge could chime in here I would highly appreciate it...

 

[roibenami]

bump. Anyone?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not sure I understand the question, but just saying protein doesn't say how much or whether it has a balance of amino acids. If both are true, the added aminos are not needed. If one or both are not true, the aminos may or may not help.

Same is true of some other nutrients.
It's a rather complex issue.

 

[roibenami]

I'm not sure I understand the question, but just saying protein doesn't say how much or whether it has a balance of amino acids. If both are true, the added aminos are not needed. If one or both are not true, the aminos may or may not help.

Same is true of some other nutrients.
It's a rather complex issue.

Thanks a lot for the reply... i was hoping you would chime in...

So my question is this... Will the brine shrimp, enriched with spirolina and the aquaforest fish v supplement, be enough as a complete diet for my fish?

Assuming they are getting natural food as they pick on the rocks to some extent...

What is in the brine shrimp? I don't know... Is it enriched with spirolina properly? I don't know.. The aquaforest supplement however, says that this is the content:

Ingredients: vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D3, E, K3, and biotin, alanine, choline, cysteine, glutamine, leucine, lysine, serine, tyrosine.

Will it be better to do the same with mysis instead of brine? Even though the fish eat more of the brine?

Basically I'm asking if it's ok if that is all I feed my fish... Thanks a lot!