Are my shrimp getting enough food??

[MarkW19]

As soon as I put some food in, my clown gulps it all back! There's barely any scraps left to sink to the bottom.

I have 3 shrimp - 2 skunk cleaners and 1 fire, occasionally one or two will get a bit and jump up for it (quite amusing!) but there doesn't seem to be much for them.

Otherwise, they're picking at my rock all day, but I've been told I don't specifically have to feed my shrimp.

How do I know they're getting enough food? They seem to go mad as soon as I put some in! Crawling up the sides of the tank really fast to try and get to it - it's as if someone's just pressed an "on" button on them! [/u]

 

[loganj]

Mine are the same way. They go nuts at feeding time. Kent makes some Marine Carnivore Pellets that the shrimp seem to like. I drop a couple of those in for the shrimp once in a while and they snap them up right away. The star likes them too. I wouldn't feed them more than about twice a week though. You might increase the amount of regular food just a bit too...as long as you have a good cleanup crew, it shouldn't cause any problems.

 

[jackdp]

Shrimp will scavenge what they need but I do target feed mine from time to time. Get a turkey baster and find the shrimp and blast some food his way every now and then. Usually if I get the turkey baster out my shrimp sees it coming and knows its feeding time, of course so do the fish, but the shrimp usually gets his fill that way.

 

[24 hours? NE!]

Mine hand feed. Usually when I feed some silversides to my bta, I give a piece to my cleaner. It actually was a necessity with one of my cleaners- he would take food from the bta if he wasn't preoccupied.