Frozen Mysis Shrimp only?

[ClownieTang]

I currently have a peppermint shrimp, a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, 3 green chromis, 1 firefish, and 2 purple chromis in a 100 gallon reef tank with 100lbs live rock and live sand.
I just bought some Hikari Marine-S yesterday night, along with the firefish.
This morning when i fed my fishtank pellets, all the fish ignored it.. it all sank to the bottom of the tank! past the fish!
But after that, when i fed them frozen mysis shrimp, all the fish and shrimp came out to eat.
Is it okay to feed my fish and shrimp : frozen mysis shrimp for the rest of their lives?
They seem to be okay with just the frozen mysis shrimp, but if you do not recommend feeding frozen fish food forever- what are the alternatives?
What else can i feed them besides frozen, pellets, live, and flakes?

[leebca]

I've linked this post to several threads: Fish Health through Proper Nutrition. It contains much about what you are asking. For instance, you are asking several questions, one of which is the value of 'Mysis Shrimp.' This comes from that linked post under this section:

Mysis or Mysid Shrimp?!
Almost any small shrimp-like animals these days are called mysis shrimp. There aren't really 'shrimp' and aren't a member of that family. These organisms are from marine and freshwater sources. The aquarist really wants the mysid that comes from the sea/ocean. You don’t want a freshwater mysis shrimp species (like Mysis relicta). Read the label. If it isn’t clear, ask. Get on the Internet and find your answers or send an e-mail to the company. As a generality: the Mysid are the saltwater kind. A 'mysis' is supposed to be freshwater. However, packagers of prepared foods often mix the terms. One of the most common of all these saltwater creatures, found off the USA coasts and used in the USA as part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water quality test is the organism, Mysidopsis bahia. That is where the "mysid" with the "d" has entered into the spelling 'war.' See Foods for Saltwater and Freshwater Fishes. To make things even more complicated Mysidopsis bahia has been renamed Americamysis bahia. So the confusion continues.

To answer your questions, "It depends." You first don't want freshwater species. Next, ideally you want these pods from tropical waters. If they are harvested (as many are) from cold waters, they are pods that our tropical ornamental marine fishes have never seen in their lives. Are the cold water species bad? No. But they eat different foods that are not likely to mimic the nutrients found in tropical waters.

I have always promoted feeding our fishes what they will find and eat in their natural environment. Our fishes are wild caught (for the most part) and should be fed what they are used to getting.

In another part of your questions you lump all frozen foods together. They are as different as a package of frozen chicken and a package of frozen (human) vegetables. Read the label -- know what your feeding.

Now, as to the pods themselves. Let's say you have gone through the process and have determined these pods are actually tropical and from saltwater. The last concern is variety. The greater the variety in the diet of our marine fishes, the more likely they will get used to different foods; get a wider range of nutrition; and digest a variety of organisms. The pods you feed are from one source, eating what they find in their environment. Mixing different pods is good, but usually a package of frozen ms are not going to give that.

The more or less bottom line: Is it wrong? No. Is it the best you can provide? No. Is it in the best interest of the fish to be fed just one type of food? Generally not (unless the food is a mix -- a variety). Will it harm the fish? Not in the general sense -- it will shorten the life of the fish and reduce the fish's ability to fend off opportunistic pathogens (e.g., some viruses, bacteria, and fungi that are usually hanging around).

I try to put myself into the place of any and all of my pets. Would I like a single diet of the same kind of pizza? It sounds good, but in the long run, despite the nutrients therein, I would find myself deficient in certain nutrients over a long period of time. Would I live? Yes. But. . .for how long?