# Brine shrimp for haps, peacocks, and mbuna?



## YelowLab8706 (Jan 30, 2008)

Is this a good food source for them? like as an occasional treat. like once or twice a month. I have fed them shrimp before but like from the sea and they loved it. Is that bad?


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## lil_flame33 (Mar 20, 2010)

I feed my fry freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. Adult brine shrimp has no nutritional value at all. From what I hear its best to stay away from the frozen brine shrimp because theres no way to know if it is good quality or not... it couldve been frozen thawed frozen, thawed, frozen, thawed, then sold to you. I don't know anything about freeze dried. I'm not sure if baby brine is good for adult mbuna cause it may have too much protien, but again I don't know. I do feed it to my mbuna fry, and they grow like crazy on it.

I have no experience on haps, or peacocks (yet) lol.... I'm addicted and currently looking for another tank to broaden my experience.... :lol:

:fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish:


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## ws812 (Apr 17, 2009)

lil_flame33 said:


> I feed my fry freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. Adult brine shrimp has no nutritional value at all. From what I hear its best to stay away from the frozen brine shrimp because theres no way to know if it is good quality or not... it couldve been frozen thawed frozen, thawed, frozen, thawed, then sold to you. I don't know anything about freeze dried. I'm not sure if baby brine is good for adult mbuna cause it may have too much protien, but again I don't know. I do feed it to my mbuna fry, and they grow like crazy on it.


Wow, some good information about brine shrimp. We have always strayed away from it, especially in the frozen form for our mbunas and peacocks (all adults) as Bloat has been a problem in our tank. I have considered starting a brine shrimp hatchery recently for our fry. Think I might do it now!


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## loffy74 (Sep 28, 2008)

i would recommend for fry only.

The brine shrimp will irritate the stomach and lead to bloat.
dont use it.

they dont need treats, just stick with the staple foods.

thats all they need. When you give treats they dont really benefit from brine shrimp
nutrition wise.

its human nature to give the best to your pets, but what they like and need is 
the same boring vegie flake or pellet. this is what keeps them happy.


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## ian6216 (Feb 19, 2010)

wow guys you's totally just answered my question i think!!!! :thumb: 
i just had a mature male german red die,and the only thing i changed was a little treat of frozen brine maybe once a week.
i notice he wasnt as active at first but still eating the normal crisps but into the second week he stopped eating.sure enough i literally just pulled him out and came on here to inquire about my loss.
it seems to be exactly that,he got bloated for some reason.i had a tank years ago and got malawi bloat,it was a 95% loss after it was all said and done but i couldnt trace it to the brine in their diet at that time so i didnt even think of that as a factor this time...and come to think of it i might have an O.B. doing the same thing in a different tank  
what can i do to prevent this death besides no longer feeding the adults frozen brine???
and if my O.B. is starting to bloat is it preventable if i quarantine or something??
but if malawi bloat is present wont it effect the whole tank?
thanks guys for all your help,i cant believe i stumbles across this topic that was started :thumb: :fish:


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## loffy74 (Sep 28, 2008)

treat with anti parsite medication-

Metronzolie (cant spell it) Looks for Metro+ is good
or 
Clout
or
Parasite clear - you can find at Walmart (this has metro and praz.)

treat the entire tank, bloat will most likely wipe out more then one fish.

look under the Illness discussion board , it will give you further instructions.

Bloat can be caused by many things...stress, excessive salt and improper diet seem
to lead them to bloat the most and usually a combination of two.


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## ian6216 (Feb 19, 2010)

when my 75 got wiped out but malawi bloat it was from stress and a breeder friend said it was over crowded and the food i was changing up ( thanks loffy )


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## ws812 (Apr 17, 2009)

we've used clout before for our aulonocara baenschi whom was showing secondary symptoms and it took a few days. he still had some problems with stringy poop for months after but is now fine and one of the most dominat fish in our peacock tank. little "ted bundy" is a survivor. it was because we were feeding them frozen brine shrimp twice weekley that he got bloat. thanks to a pamphlet at petsmart. .


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