Feeding mysis or brine shrimp via doser

[rsucre]

Really don't know under which topic to post this.

I would like to feed mysis and/or brine shrimp via dosing pump. I have read a couple of posts about doing it using a fridge to keep the mysis solution cool.

I wonder if putting the mysis shrimp in a hyper saline solution would prevent it from rotting. It is my understanding that at certain salinity concentration, bacteria will have a hard time proliferating, that's why people in the middle age used salt to cure and maintain their meats for long periods of time without refrigeration.

If the dose is not that large, it would not cause a significant impact on the tank salinity, it would be irrelevant.

What are your thoughts?

p.s. I'm not thinking about a permanent feeding solution, but something for 1 week travels. I think that it would be simpler than using an auto feeder that uses flake or pellets.

[Lakejoery]

Very interesting topic, never heard of it before. Ill be following this to see what this is all about

[sean357]

Interesting idea, I wouldn't be worried about the drift either for a week here or there.

Why not set up a test to see if it rots with hyper saline water and some mysis. If it starts to go bad you'll smell it. Could there be an issue with the mysis floating to the top of the solution (everything is very buoyant in hyper saline water) and rotting due to exposure to the air. Could you set up a reservoir with no air cap somehow?

[ReefkeeperZ]

I'm not even sure a partially rotted solution would be detrimental to a tank in drip size (what do we think the reefs feed on? both life and death, available nutrients are food) as long as dosage didn't exceed handling capacity for nutrient import it would be at least some sort of sustenance, even if not top grade (people feed tetra brand foods to their fishes and keep them alive surely slightly or almost rotten mysid can't be worse for a week).

[ReefkeeperZ]

I would however make sure I triple rinsed first to remove excess waste before integrating to the solution to start with the cleanest product possible.

[ReefkeeperZ]

just FYI
keep in mind, I feed my tank skimmate and introduce silicates because diatoms are great coral food, if you can't wrap your head around that avoid my advice.

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by sean357

Interesting idea, I wouldn't be worried about the drift either for a week here or there.

Why not set up a test to see if it rots with hyper saline water and some mysis. If it starts to go bad you'll smell it. Could there be an issue with the mysis floating to the top of the solution (everything is very buoyant in hyper saline water) and rotting due to exposure to the air. Could you set up a reservoir with no air cap somehow?

In my experience, the container can't be air tight for the dosing pump to work without issues. If tight, it starts to create a vacuum and start to dose less and less until it stops. I open a small hole in the cap for air to enter. I have seen other people dosing NOPOX putting a check valve in that second hole. That way, air can enter, but it is difficult for NOPOX to evaporate.

[Smokey Stover]

I'm not sure, But in my mind tank water salinity should be enough. I can imagine fish spitting out food that's saturated/too salty for their taste. Just a thought.

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by Smokey Stover

I'm not sure, But in my mind tank water salinity should be enough. I can imagine fish spitting out food that's saturated/too salty for their taste. Just a thought.

I think that my fish are so voracious that they would eat it regardless. And I would think that as soon as it gets into the normal salinity water, it lose some of that extra salt. Just a thought too. Really have to test an see.

But my guess is that the extra salinity could delay rotting and be useful for that.

[nathanemmerich]

Why not just use live brine shrimp?

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by nathanemmerich

Why not just use live brine shrimp?

I think that they would not survive alive for long unless you put an air pump or circulation for oxygenation. Then bubbles would also get trapped in the dosing line. Starts getting complicated. Also, the ones suck in the dosing tubing would end up dying too. And probably motile brine would manage to avoid getting sucked by the dosing pump.

[rsucre]

I decided to give it a try. Right from the start I got the first challenge. The hypersaline solution causes the brine shrimp to always stay afloat. I guess I could use a magnetic stirrer to mix the solution while dosing.

[Tripod1404]

Food stored in hyper saline solution can be unhealthy for the fish. It would be like a person only eating pickled and salted foods.

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by Tripod1404

Food stored in hyper saline solution can be unhealthy for the fish. It would be like a person only eating pickled and salted foods.

Hi. Interesting. I thought that fish would not be affected, since they are in contact with salt all day. Are you sure about that?

[slief]

Originally Posted by ReefkeeperZ

I'm not even sure a partially rotted solution would be detrimental to a tank in drip size (what do we think the reefs feed on? both life and death, available nutrients are food) as long as dosage didn't exceed handling capacity for nutrient import it would be at least some sort of sustenance, even if not top grade (people feed tetra brand foods to their fishes and keep them alive surely slightly or almost rotten mysid can't be worse for a week).

Rotted mysis can kill fish. Not a good idea nor do I think saturating the mysis with salt would be good for the fish either.

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by slief

Rotted mysis can kill fish. Not a good idea nor do I think saturating the mysis with salt would be good for the fish either.

Thanks for the feedback. I never thought about these things! I guess I will scrap this idea.

[Tripod1404]

Originally Posted by rsucre

Hi. Interesting. I thought that fish would not be affected, since they are in contact with salt all day. Are you sure about that?

Fish maintain low salt content in their tissues (that is why saltwater fish dont taste salty). This is achieved by their kidneys and special salt excreting cells in their gills. SO when they drink saltwater, salt is filtered out and water is kept.

But the amount of salt you will add to the food is much higher than the salt content of water. It will putt additional strain on the kidneys and salt pumping cells f the gills. It might cause problems in the long run.

[rsucre]

Originally Posted by Tripod1404

Fish maintain low salt content in their tissues (that is why saltwater fish dont taste salty). This is achieved by their kidneys and special salt excreting cells in their gills. SO when they drink saltwater, salt is filtered out and water is kept.

But the amount of salt you will add to the food is much higher than the salt content of water. It will putt additional strain on the kidneys and salt pumping cells f the gills. It might cause problems in the long run.

It makes sense. Thanks!

[slief]

Originally Posted by rsucre

Thanks for the feedback. I never thought about these things! I guess I will scrap this idea.

I feed thawed chilled frozen mysis to my tank using an Apex Dos and have fed chilled coral food using a GHL Doser 2. The key is being above to run the pumps in revers so you can put the remaing food in the tubes back into the source container. I use a Wine Bottle chiller to keep the mysis cold. The chiller I use goes down to 32* but is now discontinued. I am sure there may be other bottle coolers like this that get into the 30’s. I only keep 3 days of food in the jar to avoid it going bad.

Here is my Dos setup.



Here is my GHL Doser 2 setup.