What fish is generally safe with blue tiger shrimp & cherry red shrimp

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Martin_G

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Feb 14, 2011
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I'm thinking about getting some blue tigers for my tank. I'm getting ready to set a 15g up instead of a 10g. The tank will be planted about 65% -75% and it will have "caves" for the shrimp to hide in plus the plants

Originally, I had planned getting Cardinal Tetras & Celestial Pearl Danios (Galaxy Rasboras) and I can't seem to find any concrete info on what fish will leave the shrimp alone.

Do I need to have this tank a "shrimp only" tank or are there fish that are ok with them?

I was thinking that as long as the fish were kept well fed there shouldn't be an issue. I was planning on feeding flake food supplemented with tubifex and daphnia.


What is the general consensus on this "fish with shrimp" !



Thanks,

Martin
 

dbosman

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Dec 5, 2010
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Otocinclus are the only safe fish for a shrimp tank. Anything else with a mouth, will eat the babies and harass the adults. Given the cost of blue tigers do you really want them to be snacks? CPDs will absolutely eat baby shrimp. You can watch that on YouTube.

As for your caves, they might get visited, but shrimp prefer leaf litter.
 

XanAvaloni

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fwiw I have one (formerly 2 but the other died) neon tetra in my shrimp tank. Have seen no botheration or predation on adults or fry from either. This may be due to their advanced age or just very small mouths. I am going to try some endler fry next but this may change abruptly as they grow up if any sign of nomming is found. I worry about the females particularly, but we shall see.

And I have to say the shrimp are WAY more entertainig when (essentially) alone in the tank and no even potential predators to worry about. They swim, they climb, they fly around open water, not a care in the world. Iz fun to watch. :)
 

Martin_G

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I have heard that CRS (cherry red shrimp) are ok with small fish, but I haven't read much about tigers.


"As for your caves, they might get visited, but shrimp prefer leaf litter." (from dbosman)

That figures, build'em a nice place to live and they want to stay outside in the leaves!
 

TheFishBoss97

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How do shrimp fare against plecos and cories?
My RCS do perfectly fine with my cories?
IDK about plecos. Maybe I think, because the shrimp are faster than the plecos.

I keep my RCS with platys, fancy guppies, and a SAE.
 

aussie pride

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I have my 2-duhzillion cherry shrimp in my 5g with a pair of sparkling gouramis. All seems well...for now.
 

XanAvaloni

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Martin, more general advise on the subject: Get fish with the smallest possible mouths, and biological background as strict vegetarian. Vegan even. :)

Most important, if you want them to be peaceful coexistors with shrimp, get them as young a fry as possible, and let them grow up around adult shrimp. You want them conditioned from the earliest possible stage to see shrimp as Big Scary Guys Who Might Eat ME! and to be stayed away from. I think with this approach you can get a fish you enjoy and have it be a success in this environment.

Check out MsJinxed's inventory. She specialzes in micro-fish like rasboras and such. I bet you can find some that meet the above criteria. See aussiepride's comment above. I would never have thought that gouramis could fill this role, but here we see an example where they did. It all depends on the individual fish. And sometimes luck. :)
 

jetajockey

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CPD's have been known to eat shrimplets, but I do keep CPDs with my shrimp and they don't put much of a dent in the population. Tiny fish can only eat so much, thankfully lol.

I've successfully kept corys and bn plecos with shrimp also, and while i don't believe they actively hunt shrimplets, I do believe they would eat one that they ran up on.
 

lookit

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I have three tanks with one or more amano shrimp (which, admittedly, are biggish shrimp). Their respective tank co-inhabitants are: 20-gallon -- celebes rainbows, threadfin rainbows and honey gouramis (the real honey gourami, not sunset dwarf); 10-gallon -- harlequin rasboras and otos; 5-gallon hex -- male betta. No predatory behavior by any of the fish, including Leon the betta.
 
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