Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Corn-fed shrimp

The label on the shrimp's favourite food says, "Crab Cuisine". It is intended for a variety of underwater scavengers, from crabs to hemits, lobsters and even crawfish. I read the fine print on the label tonight; the first ingredient is fish meal, but from there it goes on to corn, rice, wheat, and soybeans, and only then, krill and fish oil. Next, there's garlic (just in case I might want to eat my hermits?), yeast, and a long list of vitamins and minerals.

It must be good for them; they're healthy and happy. But - corn? And garlic?

Shrimp with a corn and fish pellet. Yum!

I also have dried shrimp, and when I can find them, frozen raw shrimp; everybody loves those, but they disintegrate and pollute the water, so I feed them sparingly. And there are "shrimp pellets"; the primary ingredient in these is ... wheat.

At least there's no high fructose corn syrup in there. And I'm glad that I supplement their diet with seaweeds and, in season, hydroids.

3 comments:

  1. I think they add those other things for filler (cheaper) and texture and to keep them from spoiling. We very rarely eat what we think we're eating unless we've grown it ourselves and harvested and cooked it ourselves.

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  2. Anonymous12:41 am

    Garlic is added because it is very good as an anti-parasite additive when ingested on a regular basis. Many tropical fish breeders add fresh crushed garlic to their fish food in order to keep their stock free of internal parasites.

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  3. Anonymous; Thank you, that makes sense.

    Susan, Yes, I think the grains are filler, and also to help the pellets keep their shape in the water, so they get eaten instead of just swishing around and ending up in the pump. And then all the vitamins, etc., would be there because grain is missing some things they would otherwise be getting in krill, etc.

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