# Hikari Shrimp Cuisine and COPPER?!?!?



## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

My girlfriend and I ordered some Hikari Shrimp Cuisine and on the back it states it "Contains copper which aids blood regeneration." Isnt copper bad for inverts? I am a bit puzzled. I have a friend that uses this for his crystal shrimps and his crystals do fine and breed. Was just curious about the whole copper idea.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/images/Categoryimages/normal/p-70346-48440-fish.jpg


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

IMHO: try their copper free, calcium rich crab food instead,
perfect shrimp size, sinks, and won't make an uneaten mess.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4265


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

All living creatures--including shrimp--need tiny amounts of copper in order to survive. The tiny levels of copper in that food would not be enough to harm the shrimp even if you fed it to them every day.

To put it in perspective, I did some calculations and fresh spinach (which, blanched, many feed to their shrimps as well without any negative effects) contains something like 1000 times the copper content, on a per-weight basis, as the Hikari food you mention.

The copper you need to worry about is that found in medication, or in acidic water running through copper pipes, or the copper levels in some (many) plant fertilizers. That is where toxic levels of copper are going to come from.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Its actually copper sulfate; not that it has much bearing on the subject.

JP is right on. 

Flourish contains copper (sulfate).

I have a shrimp tank with Amanos and RCS. I have had no issues feeding them Hikari Shrimp Cusine.


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## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies. Good to know it is safe. It just set off an alarm and was curious about others thoughts


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I found cheap shippers on ebaY and figure to try it;
http://cgi.ebay.com/Hikari-Shrimp-Cuisine-35-oz-Free-Shipping-/270649312788
tell us Nurse, how are your shrimp going for this stuff?
my CRS are picking around my tank, but they don't
seem excited over anything I feed them just yet.


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## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

sadly mine do not like it. plus... its hard for them to reach it because its little pebbles and it falls between the gravel. And my gravel isnt small either, its eco-complete. They pick at it and leave it. surprisingly mine like the cheap algae discs. Its the ones you feed the plecos with. I break off small pieces for them each day and they swarm it like ants.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

yeah, I tried these algae chips for pleco's already... no joy 
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+7927+13907&pcatid=13907

I don't have problems losing food pellets in my substrate
because I rigged up a DIY feed chute to a clay trough.
it's how I test if any food is a big hit with these guys.
if they played with it, the food migrates out of the dish,
and if not, it should be still sitting in the bowel hours later.
obviously you have to choose a spot with low water flow.
if you have snails, you need to move them clear across 
the tank every time you run a new test. the greed moon
shape is the algae wafer, and the brown pellet is crab food,
they played with it overnight, but didn't quite consume it,
so after 2 days I have to vacuum it up if the snails are full.

maybe I'm making myself crazy for nothing. i have a soft
clay SMS substrate full of mulm for them to pick at, and 
they have been molting, so they can't be starving, right?


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## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

these are what i feed mine. I have tried quite a few other foods, and they dont like it. My shrimps only like these 2 products for some odd reason.

http://s.petco.com/Assets/product_images/4/4205521915C.jpg

http://s.petco.com/Assets/product_images/0/042055213028C.jpg


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

thanks Nurse - I tried the sinking pellets too - no joy.
2 weeks with these CRS and I can't impress them yet.
even my cats were less finicky when I adopted them 
did you try Hikari frozen bloodworms yet? the person
I got my shrimp from said they go wild for the stuff,
so that's my next purchase...


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## mfgann (Nov 10, 2010)

I alternate to give a little diversity. Hikari crab cuisine and Hikari algae wafers. I just added Ken's fish sticks with calcium to the mix. So far the crab cuisine is the favorite, but the graze off the plants all day as well.


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

what about Kens Foods - sinking sticks


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

Mine go nuts over the hikari crab cuisine.

They don't swarm it but will fight for pieces.

I usually put about 8-10 pieces in per day. Everything is gone within 2 hours give or take.


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## countcoco (Dec 28, 2010)

I have tried a zillion different foods with my crs and the mosura line of food is, ime, clearly the best. Mosura excel and crs specialty food were devoured since day one.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

for me i don't feed  just get a sponge filter and thats a salad bar right there. have plenty of mosses (i use fissidens fontanus) and other plants. for all my tank i RARELY feed. they are basically vegetarians from eating all the random plant matter, saves me from having to do maintenance and feeds them i don't know if its just in my tanks but i haven't fed for atleast a month and yet they're still growing quickly, molting, making babies, etc. but when i did feed, i noticed that a common favorite was blanched zuchinni, algae wafers, and sinking shrimp pellets (go figure :/ shrimp eating shrimp)


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

neil - I'm with you - once my tanks are better plant populated,
adding food often will not be a priority. however the reason I'm
so intent on finding foods my inverts will respond; is as a reliable
barometer of food adequacy. if you throw in a algae pellet or
frozen food your shrimp don't go nuts over it, they are probably 
getting enough food elsewhere, but I want to be sure whatever
food stuff I choose could have interested them were they hungry.

_it's like people who say their cats are finicky eaters,
are most probably over feeding their cats to begin with,
or have not trained them to eat a wider variety of foods._

on Friday Jan'7, I'll start testing on my CRS and Crabs;

Hikari FROZEN:
CD-13015 Daphnia 3.5 oz cubes $3.50
CD-12957 Blood Worms 3.5 oz cubes $3
CD-22972 Spirulina Brine Shrimp 3.5 oz cubes $5
Hikari DRY:
CD-70346 Hikari SHRIMP Cuisine 0.35 oz $5

it's the best my LPS can do on his weekly restock.
i'll post here whatever feeding success i observe.


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## XSVaquascaper (Nov 21, 2010)

I honestly don't think that it is that big of a problem. I've been using it for years with yellow shrimp, RCS and CRS with no problems.


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