Amano Shrimp in community tank

[stephena]

I have a 75 gallon planted community tank and was wondering if it would be ok to add Amano shrimp to round out my algae crew. I have ghost shrimp, but of course they do nothing for algae and are bigger. Not sure if any of my fish will eat amanos. I have a dwarf gourami, a school of neons, cories, two 3 inch clown loaches, a rubberlip pleco, some platies, a few khulis, a couple otos, and two siamese alage eaters. Do you think the Amano shrimp would live in that setup or will they just quickly become someone's lunch? I just don't know much about shrimp.

[andrews02r]

Amanos are larger than ghost shrimp, so if you're successfully keeping ghost shrimp, the Amanos will be fine. But to further put your mind at ease, I have roughly 20 Amanos in my 75G and with a very, very similar list of fish to what you have and the Amanos are very happy and healthy.

[stephena]

hmmm... well my LFS has what they told me were Amano (algae eating was their label) shrimp, but they were significantly smaller than the ghost shrimp I have. Not sure if they simply were not full grown Amano or if they were perhaps mislabeled.

[Jadelin]

Amano shrimp are sold at about an inch, and get to be close to two inches (smaller if male).

If they are much smaller than an inch, make sure they aren't natural color cherry shrimp, which are more brown where the Amanos are grey.

[Aphyosemion]

Most of your fish are okay, except your clown loaches will eventually get really big and most likely eat whatever shrimp you have in the tank. Either pick the loaches or the shrimp. You won't have both for very long.

[Jammie]

Clowns might eat them when they get big.

I have some amano's with a 5" angel fish and a 4" pear gourami aswell as a 6" pleco and they're doing fine i just provided them with a stack of rocks so that when they shed their skin they can hid there in safety without the worry of a big fish getting them but when not hiding i've seen one face off the angel and win, they're not scared of anything

[chiefroastbeef]

I've seen some amanos here in Hong Kong that reach 3 inches, I couldn't believe my eyes. Beware, Amano shrimps are escape artists, if you have an open top tank, they are climbing out to meet a slow and sure death. Then your wife will find it a month later while vacuuming and you will have to explain things.

[10galfornow]

i have an amano that is pregnant all the time (ALL the time, it just lost eggs yesterday, molted last night and has eggs again today). She's gotta be 3.5 inches and the circumference of a dwarf cory, she's huge. they get big, and the swim everywhere. If anything i'd be worried your fish will become stressed from their frenetic swimming. and i recently opened the top of my tank, they don't escape. keep the water healthy for them and well fed (not hard to do), and they won't escape.

[chiefroastbeef]

Originally Posted by 10galfornow

i have an amano that is pregnant all the time (ALL the time, it just lost eggs yesterday, molted last night and has eggs again today). She's gotta be 3.5 inches and the circumference of a dwarf cory, she's huge. they get big, and the swim everywhere. If anything i'd be worried your fish will become stressed from their frenetic swimming. and i recently opened the top of my tank, they don't escape. keep the water healthy for them and well fed (not hard to do), and they won't escape.

I think everyone else who has kept Amanos will disagree about them not escaping.

[wetworks]

Amano Shrimps are probably the best dwarf shrimp to add to a community tank because of their size and behavior. I keep mine with Yoyo Loaches, Corys, Plecos and Blue Rams, and have never had any problem with aggression issues either way. (I have heard stories about aggressive Amano Shrimps harassing fishes and other shrimps, but this is anecdotal; I have never witnessed it myself.) The only fish in your tank you should really worry about would be Clown Loaches; some, but not all of these fish will eat just about anything they can fit into their mouth. If you add any shrimps to a tank with Clown Loaches, you have about a fifty-fifty chance of either delivering your Loaches a new friend or dinner.