I feed my silvers with shell on but remove the tail spike. With my black aro I have to remove the shell and tail spike. She will not eat the shell and deshells the shrimp before she eats it anyways.
I see everyone takes off the tail spike. Might be a good precaution but ive been feeding with tail spike to all my aros that are 2ft and i have yet to have a problem. Its just a bit more vitamins.
Yeah, i remove only the head and tail spike for the large silvers and jar but completely de-shell for the smaller asian aros and stingray.... when the asians are bigger and chunkier i will teach them to eat shell too (no head and tail spike).
I have read too many threads to take chances with tail spike.
PS: i did experiment by feeding the entire live prawn with only tailspike and head spike removed. The silver gobbled the whole thing with no problem. I used to remove only head shell and spike before (thinking that head has some more nutrients) but it fouls up the water color so i remove the head and all mushy stuff
I cut the shrimp into a few pieces with the shell left on. I cut off the tail. I've fed like this since my aro was 10". Smaller ones should have the shell removed as a precaution.
