I had plenty of aquariums over the years but none in the last five or so. I decided to get back into the hobby as something to share with my children and because I was interested in red cherry shrimp.
I've always been inclined to under stock so I started a low-light 20 gallon planted aquarium (nothing fancy--mainly hornwort and a couple of varieties of moss) and added 6 rcs and 3 sparkling gouramis. I had started fishless cycling two sponge filters in a separate tank weeks before and transferred one of those and most of the water over with OK results--never a hint of ammonia, the nitrites did kick up for a bit and then settled back down after a few days.
I didn't see too much of the shrimp. I could always find one or two and occasionally I even counted 4. I was beginning to fear that the others were dead but then it is a 20 gallon planted tank and they are pretty small...The sparkling gouramis are also a little shy but they did swim about just enough so that I could normally see all three and they are attractive little guys.
Then I started reading that some people had experienced sparkling gouramis harassing their shrimp. I didn't mind if the fish ate some or even most of the fry--but I didn't want to have the adults stressed or eaten. I never saw the gouramis go after any shrimp--but then I seemed to be missing a couple of shrimp. So I moved the gouramis to my other tank.
Only an hour later and I could see all 6 shrimp and they were high up in the hornwort and visibly moving about and grazing. Now I see 3 moving confidently about on the black substrate. So the sparkling gouramis clearly had not eaten any of the shrimp--but it seems they were making them uncomfortable about coming into the open.
I'm posting this because I read a lot of forum threads here and elsewhere about the proper fish to mix with red cherry shrimp. Some say you just shouldn't do it. My experience (with admittedly a sample set of 1) is that sparkling gouramis work out OK with the adults but that the adults are a bit shyer with the fish swimming about. Have others experienced this sudden emergence of shrimp once fish were out of the picture?
I've always been inclined to under stock so I started a low-light 20 gallon planted aquarium (nothing fancy--mainly hornwort and a couple of varieties of moss) and added 6 rcs and 3 sparkling gouramis. I had started fishless cycling two sponge filters in a separate tank weeks before and transferred one of those and most of the water over with OK results--never a hint of ammonia, the nitrites did kick up for a bit and then settled back down after a few days.
I didn't see too much of the shrimp. I could always find one or two and occasionally I even counted 4. I was beginning to fear that the others were dead but then it is a 20 gallon planted tank and they are pretty small...The sparkling gouramis are also a little shy but they did swim about just enough so that I could normally see all three and they are attractive little guys.
Then I started reading that some people had experienced sparkling gouramis harassing their shrimp. I didn't mind if the fish ate some or even most of the fry--but I didn't want to have the adults stressed or eaten. I never saw the gouramis go after any shrimp--but then I seemed to be missing a couple of shrimp. So I moved the gouramis to my other tank.
Only an hour later and I could see all 6 shrimp and they were high up in the hornwort and visibly moving about and grazing. Now I see 3 moving confidently about on the black substrate. So the sparkling gouramis clearly had not eaten any of the shrimp--but it seems they were making them uncomfortable about coming into the open.
I'm posting this because I read a lot of forum threads here and elsewhere about the proper fish to mix with red cherry shrimp. Some say you just shouldn't do it. My experience (with admittedly a sample set of 1) is that sparkling gouramis work out OK with the adults but that the adults are a bit shyer with the fish swimming about. Have others experienced this sudden emergence of shrimp once fish were out of the picture?
