Self Feeding tank

[wxboilermaker]

Was talking with one of my friends at work who suggested I add some live brine shrimp to the tank. I'm thinking about getting a small crab too, because of the layout of the tank is perfect for one. The thought was that the brine shrimp would give the fish and crab someting live to munch on and possibly help keep alge down. Would the shrimp population be controlled by the predation or would I end up with too many shrimp.


and yes, I will contine to feed the fish...

 

[William]

Brine shrimp need saltwater or brackish [ I'm not sure which ] enviroment to hatch.


On top of that, unless you added a few billion to your tank, your fish would.. if their anything like mine, anihilate them in a few seconds.


My guys love their brine shrimp

 

[TankGirl]

Live brine shrimp will not live very long or spawn in a FW tank. As far as a tank that supplies its own food, livebearers are probably the closest you can come, but it depends quite a lot on the other tankmates.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Adding all that shrimp will just pollute your tank. Don't you like feeding your fish everyday?

 

[targaboy78]

Hi wxboilermaker,

You could try one of these...
https://www.aquatichouse.com/Fish Food_files/Brine Shrimp.asp
They are good in freshwater and SW tanks. You can find them on eBay all the time.

However, they won't do anything for your algae.

HTH
Paul.

 

[Enki]

The concept of a self sustaining eco-system in a tank is interesting, but I think you would have to go a whole different direction to actually make it work.

I think you would have to have some sort of plant/algae eater that feeds on a plant/algae growing in the tank.

If you had a large tank, lots of light and got a good carpet of green algae going on your rocks, some Mbuna cichlids MIGHT be able to live off the algae. It would be pretty cool if it did work.

 

[Allivymar]

Ooooo I just bought one of those (I'll let you all know how well I do with it once I get it set up; think snapcrackler has one). I wanted to see how well it worked feeding angelfish fry...

I wonder if your friend meant ghost shrimp, not brine shrimp wx. Ghost shrimp aka grass shrimp will occasionally eat algae, although they prefer leftover fish food. They are also know as feeder shrimp as they are often used to feed fish such as puffers.