Zooplankton and Mysis Shrimp For Food

I went to a local fish store looking to see if they had any Daphnia. In another thread I made I asked you guys about what I could possibly add to my newts' diet to enhance the color of their bellies and that was one of the suggestions. However, they did not carry any Daphnia, but instead sold me some Cyclopeeze zooplankton, saying it had an even higher quantity of carotenes in them.

Also, they asked what I normally feed my newts: I said hakari bloodworms and brine shrimp. They said the nutritional content of those weren't that high and recommended I give mysis shrimp a shot, saying they had more protein in them etc.

However, I find for the most part my newts don't seem to enjoy either of these foods very much.and what I feed them goes largely ignored. Only the smallest, most colorful of my newts will eat the zooplankton (maybe that's why he's the most colorful, maybe he ate them when he still lived in the wild?) and my medium sized newt seems to just detest the mysis shrimp, often spitting it out and giving up on eating.

Are these really bad food choices, or can I 'acclimate' my newts to these by mixing them in with some blood worms? Or should I just throw these out and return to their normal diets?

P.S. If someone can recommend a better diet than blood worms and brine shrimp, please inform. Once it's summer I intend to try and catch some earth worms, but in the meantime, it is still pretty much winter in northern Alberta.

Hmm. I see my thread got moved out of the Cynops forum into the frozen food section. I guess now I should clarify that my newts are Cynops orientalis (Chinese Firebellies)

Brine shrimp and bloodworms are your best bet. Mysis shrimp are good too for occasional use. Mix it up a bit as just like with any other animal a varied balanced diet is best. I use all three frozen with my critters.

Have you had a go at the Caudata Culture articles on the topics of feeding and nutrition?

I´ve used mysis in the past and they were a mess....barely a few entire mysis that my newts could catch....the rest just littered my tanks. Also, at least the ones i bought are a marine species so i would be wary of using them frequently as they will have different concentrations of salts and elements.

Azhael said:

I´ve used mysis in the past and they were a mess....barely a few entire mysis that my newts could catch....the rest just littered my tanks. Also, at least the ones i bought are a marine species so i would be wary of using them frequently as they will have different concentrations of salts and elements.

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I'm feeding them frozen mysis shrimp, so they don't have to catch anything.

But for the most part they seem to be largely ignoring them.