Will Briggs or shrimp eat/bother BN pleco eggs/fry?

SilverFlame819

AC Members
May 16, 2010
39
0
6
44
SLC, UT
Hi, all. I'm the proud new mom of some super cute snails. Last night I saw my bushynose pleco for the first time in forever (she hides from me when I approach the tank), and she's HUGE. I'm thinking about getting her a boyfriend so she can slim down some. :) I have 3 Briggs snails in that particular tank - 2 quarter sized, and 1 dime sized. Will they bother or eat the eggs/fry of the pleco or bother the dad while he's guarding the cave? If there will be a problem housing them together, I can move the snails to a different tank while the plecos are doing their thing. Also, the tank has around 20 yellow shrimp and 1 ghost shrimp. Will there be compatibility issues there? I may have a free tank soon I can move the plecos to for spawning but just in case I get the male before the tank is cleared out, thought I'd ask. :)

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide. :)
Angela
 
The briggs shouldn't bother the eggs since they primarily feast on dead plant material, although the shrimp might be another story since they're generally scavengers, particularly the ghost shrimp. You may want to check with msJinkzd about the shrimp though, she's one of the resident experts, and she may have a more experienced opinion on the briggs as well since I haven't tried to breed anything my my tank other than the briggs
 
Ghost shrimp will kill and eat smaller shrimp, and if the "ghost shrimp" happens to be a juvie prawn it will grow large enough to become a threat to fish as well.
 
It is not a juvenile. I've had it about a year now. It's around an inch long (maybe a TINY bit bigger)... It's clear. I haven't been able to get a specific species ID on it, but I put the yellow shrimp in the tank 2 days ago and he hasn't bothered them... Actually doesn't seem to notice them at all. He's out cleaning gravel and doing his thing. And the yellow shrimp are smaller than him... They're juveniles (not babies)... He seems to be pretty chill and stays hidden in the plants eating algae off them mostly... I will have a new tank setup of 9 10-gallons here soon, and plan to give each species of shrimp their own colony tank, but until then, unless the ghost is seen being a jerk to the yellows, he's gonna stay in the tank with everyone else... He was an accidental stowaway shrimp -- came home as a juvenile in a bag with a pleco I bought.

However, if he will be the only issue between Speckles having babies and not having babies, I can switch what tank he's in.
 
If you've had the ghost shrimp that long it's probably going to die of old age soon. The male BN will protect his eggs/fry from just about anything until they wander off on their own, a 1" shrimp won't be any threat. If the yellow shrimp are safe with it the fish certainly will be.
 
Old age, at a year?! Noooo, not Bubba Shrimp!! I totally didn't even used to like shrimp. I thought they were creepy little stick figure water spiders. I wasn't even concerned when I thought my bigger fish ate Bubba his first week in the tank... But now, the little guy has grown on me, and I now have RCS, yellow, dark green, snowballs, and a batch of pearl blues on the way... I hope he doesn't die soon! He is quite healthy and happy and active... Maybe since I haven't been able to get a set ID on him, he'll be a rare shrimp that lasts 10 years with not an angry killer ghost shrimp bone in his body. :P

I noticed today that my other BN pleco who lives in the living room tank is also growing quite large... It may just be "spawn some cute baby plecos" month! :)
 
I have cherry shrimp, amano shrimp, and brigs in with my BN pair, and I still have oodles of babies.
 
AquariaCentral.com