Fish with breeding Red Cherry Shrimp ?

HarleyK

AC Members
Dec 7, 2006
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Howdy,

I have a nice colony of breeding red cherry shrimp in a 10 gal species tank. I don't want to compromize their reproduction, but I surely would love to put some fish in the tank.

Does anyone have experience with fish being present in a RCS breeding tank that do not prey on shrimp fry?

Thanks,
HarleyK
 
Thanks :thumbsup: Even the fry are safe?

Is that personal experience or educated guess?
 
Baby shrimp is almost never safe with fish. There is ALWAYS a possibility that even the smallest of fish available out in the hobby, will eat baby shrimp. So if you want 100% shrimp safe, then don't bother with fish.

However, there are fish available that can be kept with shrimp, that won't affect the shrimp population much because they don't eat baby shrimp often. Why do they not the shrimp often? For various reasons. Some could be due to the fact that they are small top dwellers. Others have small mouths that would allow them to only eat baby shrimp of less than a few days of age (because once they hit 1 week of age, they're already too big to eat). The list goes on. Key note: I said they don't eat shrimp often; not ever. So you will lose a baby occasionally, although probably not noticeable due to its rarity.

So, as I stated before, finding a fish that will completely leave baby shrimp alone probably won't exist.
However, here's a list of fish that will "generally" just leave your shrimp alone (although not a guarantee).

Ottos
Small Tetras and rasboras such as:
Boraras sp. Micro/Urophthalmoides/Merah/Brigittae/Maculata
Microrasbora Nana
Green Neon Tetras

Those fish would work in a small 10 gallon tank.

However, in larger tanks, I have kept discus, angelfish, cardinal tetras, rummy nose tetras, pseudomugil gertrudaes, celestial pearl danios, pseudomugil furcatus and german blue rams in a tank with a growing population of cherry shrimp.

Technically, as long as you start your population large, you have good ground cover, good hiding spots and feed your fish regularly, your cherry shrimp will produce offspring and increase their population in a tank with any kind of fish.

And yes, I do speak from experience.
 
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