# Nettle's as food?



## Smoggy_Bobby (18 Apr 2020)

Morning all,

I am currently feeding the shrimp using vitalis fresh water shrimp pellets with a monthly treat of bee pollen.

I have heard you can boil stinging nettles (5 mins ish) then feed them to your shrimp, when cool enough as they are high in calcium? 

Is there any other natural beneficial food that i could try?

Cheers


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## Aqua sobriquet (18 Apr 2020)

My shrimps didn’t touch the nettles I put in the tank. I also tried spinach and cucumber but they didn’t like that either. They do like cooked frozen peas though. I’ve got lots of cherries and a couple of amano’s and it’s really funny watching an amano grabbing half a pea and walking off with it!


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## BarryH (18 Apr 2020)

Not sure about any other natural leaves that are grow wild in the UK but I feed nettles as often as I can, my shrimp (Fire Red Sakuras) love them. They stay feeding on the leaves until every last bit has gone. First all the green goes then the veins.

A question was asked over on the UK Shrimpers page how often you could feed the leaves and the general opinion was that once a week was often enough, only use them as a treat. The nettle leaves are supposed to be one of the best foods for them.

What I would add however is that you must be careful where you pick the leaves from. Watch out for areas that may have been sprayed and especially had dogs pee on them. A lot of shrimp keepers seem to have their own small patch of nettles just for feeding to the shrimp.


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## Zeus. (18 Apr 2020)

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## Aqua sobriquet (18 Apr 2020)

I’ve just put a pea in the tank and here’s a shot of some of my juvenile shrimp having lunch.


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## Aqua sobriquet (18 Apr 2020)

How do you prepare them Zeus? I just poured boiling water on the leaves and left them for ten minutes.


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## BarryH (18 Apr 2020)

Aqua sobriquet said:


> How do you prepare them Zeus? I just poured boiling water on the leaves and left them for ten minutes.



I put mine in a cup and pour the boiled water over them and leave them for five minutes and then pour cold water into the cup, that's the only way I can get the leaves to sink. My wife tells me it's called "blanching" and should only be done for a couple of minutes otherwise a lot of the goodness is washed out of the leaves.


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## Zeus. (18 Apr 2020)

Aqua sobriquet said:


> How do you prepare them Zeus? I just poured boiling water on the leaves and left them for ten minutes.



Yep about ten mins rise in tap water and plants stems of nettle in AS, going to find it harder to get nettles from garden this year as have been doing garden quite a bit last couple of weeks


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## mort (18 Apr 2020)

I only blanch the nettles for 20 seconds or so and then roll them up and squeeze a little as this helps the sink. You don't really need to blanch them as all it does is soften them a little so the shrimp can eat them. You could just throw them in the tank dry and then let them sink over a few days, or weight them down. If you do it this way they last longer but probably won't be actively picked at for a few days because they need to soften a little in the water before the shrimps think they are palateble. 
I only feed the nettle tips as this is where the best nutrition is and if you have a few flowers on them, all the better. 

Dandelions are another easy source of shrimp food and you can even make a mix of dandelion and nettles, plus some Spirulina if you have any, blanch and leave in the water for 5 minutes before blending and setting with a little agar. This mixture can then be frozen and dished out when needed.


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## Aqua sobriquet (18 Apr 2020)

I’ll give it another try folks, thanks. One other thing the cherries liked was cooked carrot.


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## Smoggy_Bobby (18 Apr 2020)

I have the nettles and ill get them blanched and into the tank shortly.

Never thought or heard of dandelions been used but ill give it a go.

some nice photos of them destroying the nettles!

cheers for all the replies and advice.


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