SHRIMP SAFE LIST (was: Is there a list of shrimp predators somewhere?)

[louiscoolboy]

Hillstream Loach should have no problem with shrimps even the babies

[waterfaller1]

Originally Posted by eklikewhoa

Boraras Merah
Boraras Brigittae
Boraras Maculata
Boraras Uropthalmoides
Microrasboras scissor tails

Which one of these is the prettiest/brightest? Schools? Smallest? It is hard to judge from photos only.

[soundtweakers]

How about snails? anyone ever caught a snail hunting live baby shrimplets? I have.

[neilfishguy]

I dont see how a snail could hold a LIVE shrimp long enough to eat it...

[NeonShrimp]

Originally Posted by neilfishguy

I dont see how a snail could hold a LIVE shrimp long enough to eat it...

I agree with you on this one. Only true fish safe around even babies are Ottos and BNP's.

[zergling]

It might be slightly OT, but just want to say to NOT add cardinal tetras, glo-light tetras, and white cloud mountain minnows to the shrimp safe list.

The 3 species mentioned ate all but one of the 35 RCS that I recently bought (yes it is my fault as the shrimp had nowhere to hide in my iwagumi attempt of a scape). They swallowed anything up to 1cm big, and the few that were not big enough to swallow whole, they kept on biting and harassing until they tore them to pieces. 20 cardinals, 20 glo-lights, and 5 white clouds made short work of my $25 order

Yes, I fed the tank heavily 5 minutes before I added the RCS, and yes the lights were also turned off when I added the RCS. If they had places to hide though (translation: if I didn't rescape), they would have survived and my gut feeling is that they will eventually give up on the RCS (well, not the shrimplets though LOL).

[crazie.eddie]

I'm just curious for those who have trouble with fish eating the shrimplets, how much do you feed your fish? I recently added cardinals to my 29 gallon tank and I'm thinking of heavily feeding the cardinals so they would not be interested with the shrimplets.

[NeonShrimp]

I don't think it is just a care of hunger, it is natural instinct for lots of fish to go after small swimming/floating objects. Over feeding can be a negative result of keeping the fish full.

[neilfishguy]

Fish would rather eat live food than flakes though.

[kzr750r1]

Originally Posted by NeonShrimp

I don't think it is just a care of hunger, it is natural instinct for lots of fish to go after small swimming/floating objects. Over feeding can be a negative result of keeping the fish full.

I would tend to agree with this for any of the small fish aside from an otto or cory... Even as a large mouth is attracted to a lure. They will instinctavly whant to mouth somthing moving.

The interesting thing is learned behavior. Once they get a taste... It's all over.

I'm convinced the small schools of Cards and WCM are preventing the small ones to live in the 55. Early on there were shrimplets but these days nada. All of the survivors grow out without harm.

In all I don't see this as a bad thing. Free live food is provided to your fish.

So as a general rule. Don't expect a long term colony explosion. Early it may happen, but then the fish figure outthey are tasty.

Keep a shrimp only tank for the support colony to replenish the preditory fish tanks. Sooner or later shrimp do get old. As we see large or small they act with the same basic instincts.

[crazie.eddie]

Fish usually prefers live food, because it's a predatory instinct for them to chase food. I remember when I used to breed guppies. I've read that guppies will eat their fry, so I would catch the fry and place them in a breeder trap. But it got tedious, so I left the fry alone with the parents. The adults would maybe give a quick chase for the fry, but rarely. That's because I kept the adults well fed. I know if I didn't feed them, they would give their babies a second look for survival.

I'm sure it would be also a different story with tank bred fish vs. wild fish in the tanks with shrimps. Tank bred fish are used to eating what we feed them and normally can recognize us and wait for us for food. So eating other inhabitants in the tank would not interest them. Unlike wild fish, which are more opportunistic and would prefer anything that could fit in it's mouth.

[retoid]

I currently have a couple tanks with RCS in them. Both are breeding fine.

One tank is strictly shrimp and snails.
The other consists of several tetras, a hillstream loach, two yoyo loaches, one full size and one juvenile. And one smaller pleco.
I was concerned at first about the yoyo's but they dont bother the shrimp. The seem to swim into them, scaring the shrimp causing them to jmp but thats it.

[Kayakbabe]

I've keep a planted tank with cherry shrimp for 3 years now. I do have a lot of dense cover planted areas where shimp babies can hide. Where it is hard for larger fish to get to the babies. so I have lots of babies surviving in my tank. I keep dwarf neon rainbows, brilliant rasboras, cardinal tetras, white clounds and otocinclus with the shrimp. I know my shrimp are thriving as I often take about 30 of them out of the tank at a time and exchange them for credit as my local fish store. I beleive the key is having lots of plants and dense planted areas that babies hide in. Other than that, I feed normally with floating and midwater food and also throw in Hikari 'shimp' pellets (which my shrimp love to eat). I beleive the key is having cover for the babies to hide in.

[fishscale]

Rams and other dwarf cichlids will definitely eat shrimp, even attack adults. I have just learned the celestial pearl danios (galaxy rasboras) are not shrimp safe. Apparently, they will pick at adult shrimp, even though they are roughly the same size.

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by waterfaller1

Which one of these is the prettiest/brightest? Schools? Smallest? It is hard to judge from photos only.

i've only seen photos but i plan on getting boras merah for my 10 gal, they look like they have the most intense colors. i also hope to keep them with RCS, so im really glad they are not shrimp predators.



i have kept amano shrimp in a community 20 gal with boesemani rainbows, SAE, gold clouds, dwarf guppies (a strain me and my dad created by leaving only runts and giving away the rest), german blue rams, black neon tetra, neon tetra, and a bumble bee goby.