There are all different kinds of frozen foods you can feed your salt water aquarium, and today I’m going to cover one of my favorites – Mysis Shrimp. But there are a few things you should know about how to do it and what not to do. Mysis shrimp is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein for your salt water fish.  So here are a few things that you should know.

First off, before you feed mysis shrimp to your salt water aquarium, you need to rinse it (no matter the brand).  When it is frozen, the liquid that the mysis shrimp are frozen in is loaded with juices, oils, proteins, etc. that you don’t want in your aquarium because it would significantly degrade your tank’s water quality. Specifically it would raise the phosphate, nitrates and organics. Rinsing can easily be done with a small fish net.  I use the small brine shrimp nets, but any small net with a fine mesh will do.  First, take the amount of frozen mysis shrimp that you are going to feed and thaw it out in a cup of saltwater (or you can let it thaw without water).  In water, it takes about 5 minutes to thaw.  You can also use warm tapwater.  I’ve not noticed any difference between the two.  When it is done thawing out, take a look at the water and ask yourself if this is something you’d want added to your aquarium water every time you feed.  The answer is pretty clear. This stuff is a grey, oily, yucky syrup that would make you shreek if someone said they were going to poor it into your tank. You get the idea.

Second, check to see if the frozen mysis shrimp has not been thawed out and refrozen before. Ideally you want to check this when you are buying it in the stor.  Unfortunately, over the years we have seen this happen occasionally (why – I have no idea).  The way you can tell if the mysis shrimp has been previously thawed out and refrozen is if it has a tan/brown/yellow color to it.  Good quality frozen mysis that has been properly frozen is a white/grey color.  The best time to check for this is upon purchasing your mysis shrimp either at the store or when it arrives in the mail.  If you ordered it online and it arrived by mail, then you can call the retailer you purchased it from to return it or have them ship you a new order.

And lastly, be sure to not overfeed frozen mysis shrimp to  your salt water aquarium fish.  Since it is so high in good fats, oils, and protein, it is great for putting weight on fish.  This can be a double-edged sword if you over feed, so remember that less is better.  The majority of most salt water fish species will eventually eat whatever is offered them, and the best kinds of foods to offer are primarily algae-based foods, such as nori (see brands such as SeaWeed Selects and Sea Veggies) and spirulina flake food (OSI Spirulina Flake).

The best frozen mysis shrimp I have ever used is PE Mysis (by Piscine Energetics). 

The shrimp are bigger and plumper and are not all fragmented like with other poor quality brands.  They are high in protein and good oils and fats and are great for overall growth and for helping fish put weight.  It is also an excellent food for plankton eaters such as Anthias, Bangaii Cardinals and pretty much almost all fishes will readily eat frozen mysis shrimp.

Just remember to rinse it thoroughly and not to overfeed.  Whatever amount you put into the aquarium should be completely consumed within two minutes.

Good luck and happy fishes.

I received a great question and thought I would share it with you along with my answer.

So here’s the question:  What do you think is the simplest system to use for a reef tank?

I think I will make a video answer to this question and post it on the blog for others, because

keeping things simple is one of the most important things to learn in reef keeping, and yet also one

of the most challenging to accomplish.  Again, great question.

Here’s my answer:
As for what is the simplest system for a reef tank, I would have to say it depends on three factors:
1) the size of the tank, how heavily it is stocked with small-polyped stony corals (SPS);
2) how much time (work) you want to spend per week maintaining it; and
3) how much effort you are willing to put into setting it up (installation)

So, of course, I am biased.  I like larger systems that maximize stocking density and diversity of all kinds of corals and fishes.  And I like to take my time setting it up so that it is as easy as possible to maintain (I’m lazy) and so that it is designed to prevent problems (this last one is one of my greatest talents).

If you are just getting started and your tank is less than 200 gallons, and not heavily stocked yet, you can get away with just doing water changes.  A good quality reef salt will help maintain your pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and all other levels, by simply doing frequent water changes.  If water changes is your only method of maintaining water quality, then you will want to do roughly 50% or more per month, done weekly.  So, for example, if you have a 100-gallon system, and you are doing 50% water change per month, then you could do one water change per week of 12.5 gallons.  Thus after four weeks, you will have changed 50% of the system’s water.  The down side to this approach is that you will go through more salt (higher cost) and it requires weekly water changes (more time).  We maintained a 250-gallon reef tank (all soft corals) for many years with great success, using this approach.  Because this system had great water movement and high flow rates (10x system volume/hr) and strong lighting (3 x 400w HQI metal halides 10,000K), strong protein skimming (ETS1400), stable water temperature (chiller), and it grew soft corals like crazy.  It was very simple.

The Jaubert method is OK as long as your sand bed is deep enough and that you use a fine enough substrate, and as long as it can keep up with the calcium/magnesium demand of the corals in the system.  I would say that the Jaubert method is best suited for systems that are not heavily stocked with fast-growing stony corals.  Systems that are heavily stocked with the faster-growing small-polyped stony corals (SPS corals) will need a more aggressive dosing approach than the passive Jaubert method.

Another very simple way to help maintain calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity is by use of a fluidized bed sand filter that is filled with aragonite sand (0.5-2.0mm particle size I recommend Carribsea’s “Sea Floor Special Grade Reef Sand”).  It is very cheap and very low maintenance and will help to maintain calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity.  You will need to refill (top off) the fluidized sand filter about every 4-6 months as the substrate will dissolve over time.  This is also a very efficient biological filter.  Depending on the size of the fluidized sand filter (the bigger the better – you cannot over size it), this method is best suited for a higher stocking density of corals than with the method of just doing water changes.

Another very simple method is to use one of the liquid two-part products administered with a two-part dossier (usually also sold by the manufacturer of the liquid 2-part product).  We have used the B-Ionic product (by ESV) with great success, along with their liquid 2-part dossier.

So when considering what is the simplest method for keeping or setting up a reef tank, remember the following factors:

1) the size of the tank, how heavily it is stocked with small-polyped stony corals (SPS);
2) how much time (work) you want to spend per week maintaining it; and
3) how much effort you are willing to put into setting it up (installation)

If you have a method you love for it’s simplicity, we’d love to hear about it.  Post a comment and let us know what is working for you to keep things simple.

Thanks.

Warren Gibbons

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