Red Cherry and Other Dwarf Shrimp

[George Monnat Jr]

I'm planning which shrimp I'm going to stock up with. I currently have 5x Amano/Swamp/Algae Shrimp (and 3x Viper/Giant African Fan Shrimp, but they don't directly compete) and no other algae/detritus grazing shrimp. Just 3x small Mystery Snails. I've read multiple places where they say 2+ Amano Shrimp per gallon (from Amano-san himself) and 10-15 dwarf shrimp per gallon. I have 125g, so that seems like a ton of shrimp! I was thinking of no more than a dozen Amano and maybe a couple dozen Red Cherry Shrimp (RCS) or the similar Blue Pearl Shrimp or Snowball Shrimp to start. I read that RCS breed like tiny underwater rabbits, so I hopefully will have more.

My question is, will any of these fish eat the RCS (I already know the bigger Amano are safe)?

5x large Congo Tetra (up to about 2.5")

3x Harlequin Rasbora

11x Brass/Gold Tetra

1x Sailfin Molly (leftover from SW aquarium!)

4x Upside-Down Catfish

3x medium-large Elephant Nose Fish

I got rid of 2x Valentino Syno Catfish (S. decora hybrids) as they would definitely start munching on shrimp. The only ones I worry about are the Congo Tetra. The Elephant Nose have small mouths, I think.

If the fish eat 90% of the RCS youngun's, that will be fine with me. That means free live fish food. I just don't want them munching on the 1/2" to 1" adults.

Any comments or experience?

[Reburn]

Dwarf Shrimp can be tricky. If they can fit in the fishes mouths they will for sure eat them. If some fish are territorial the fish may also pick them to death. Tetras are know for this behavior. White cloud minnows and neons are mostly fine though. The trick is give them plenty of places to hide. Java moss works well as does most of your mosses. Amano shrimp can also pick on smaller shrimp. The upside is you have a large tank. I would toss 3 dozen RCS in and give it a whirl. They are cheap enough to start with so if it's a complete failure like me trying to keep orange sakuras in a 5 gallon with a trio of ATFG guppies it's not a huge hit to your pocket book. You can usually find shrimp especially RCS on the freshwater tank forums all the time for cheap. The snowballs are neat too and I really like them but they are out of style so sometimes harder to come across. I have had blue pearls and while they are neat it was very difficult for me to get them to color up nice. Dwarf shrimp just like any othe invert marine or freshwater can be killed in 3 micro seconds with copper. I'm sure your fine since you already have amanos but just wanted to throw that out there.

[bige]

All those fish will eat shrimp. I have a bunch of tetras and a Molly and a clown loach (I have never seen it eat a shrimp). But the biggest offender is my betta. It eats them none stop. And the crazy thing is it only eats the big ones. I have tons of baby shrimp. No adults. Someone is making babies but they are not big. I spent so much money on all kinds of shrimp only to have them eaten. And I have a ton of hiding places.

[George Monnat Jr]

Last night I was staring at the biggest Congo Tetra's mouth and an Elephant Nose mouth. The Congo Tetra (not a real tetra as it's from Africa not South America) may widen to be big enough, but I don't think the Elephant Nose's mouth is big enough. It 'yawned' while I looking at it.

I've had them all for over a year. I had Ghost Shrimp and now Amano Shrimp for most of that time. The Ghost Shrimp were all eaten by the Black Ghost Knife I had, so I turned it back into RCA. Last week I turned in my catfish that were a threat to shrimp. The Amano are tooling around all happy without being harassed by anybody, but they're twice the size of RCS.

I like the idea of throwing in some cheap RCS from RCA and seeing what happens.

I bought manzanita driftwood from Manzanita-Driftwood.com, and they sell shrimp, too. They have awesome pictures and prices, so I was thinking of ordering from them. Has anyone done that?

Back when my tank was SW, I loved the anemone shrimp and crabs. I've never added copper or anything else likely to hurt inverts - I think.

[Reburn]

I have ordered most of my shrimp from alpha pro breeders. Their prices are a little high but their quality is good and they breed true. I have been on the manzanita driftwood shrimp site but I have never ordered from them. For RCS I would just get them from RCA if they have some or get on www.plantedtank.net and browse the for sale section. Their are always guys on there with shrimp. Always insist on over night shipping though. If you are getting 4 or more dozen the $40 shipping isn't bad and you can come out ahead. If you are only going to start with a dozen then I would buy them locally. The shipping on only a dozen usually doesn't work out where the cost is cheaper then buying a dozen locally. The smaller the shrimp the better they transition too. You may want to also check out micro crabs. I know alpha pro has them from time to time. They are neat as can be and shrimp safe.

[George Monnat Jr]

Reburn, thanks. I was at RCA today and tried to get a few RCS, but they were out. I want the orange ones if the couple RCS survive (don't really want them to interbreed too much). I emailed ManzanitaDriftwood a day or two ago asking if they were in stock but no response.

I'll definitely check out the micro crabs.

I picked up some Marimo Moss Balls (Cladophora aegagropila) at RCA today - they're awesome.

[bige]

I have a ton of rcs you can have if you want to come to south Austin. I have hundreds of little ones.

[George Monnat Jr]

Are you free tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon? I might, because RCA wants $5 each (if they have any). I don't mind supporting RCA, but these are test subjects that may get eaten.

[Makena95GT]

I have a small breeding colony of RCS and Rili Red Shrimp. Also breeding Ghost Shrimp on accident. My Rilis are breeding some interesting patterns.. but also some blues and plain whites

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Reburn]

George no problem at all. I have bought dozens of shrimp before and had good success and complete failures. The cool thing about dwarf shrimp is that you can add different species of shrimp together that won't cross. I am currently doing a DSM (dry start method) on a 17 gallon mr aqua that has a bonsai tree that will have Christmas moss on it and a carpet of HC Cuba (Dwarf Baby Tears)(Hemianthus callitrichoides). I think I am going to do some OEBT (orange eye blue tigers) withe some blue rillis or some yellow rillis with CRS (crystal red shrimp).

You may want to look at the pumpkin neos. I bet you would like them.

I would definitely take bige up on his offer and experiment with RCS first. Then if all goes well make a catch pen out of a small Gatorade bottle and catch all the RCS out and put in orange sakuras or pumpkins.

[George Monnat Jr]

I think that's a great plan. Yea, my wife loves the Pumpkins. I was thinking about those and Green. I found a great site that lets you pick what you want and shows compatability with cross-breeding in mind.

Let me know how the OEBTs work out.

[Teresa]

I don't know what fish it's safe with, but my favorite freshwater crustacean by far is the dwarf orange crayfish. So much personality!!

[George Monnat Jr]

I haven't posted, because I was depressed. My experiment with RCS/dwarf shrimp was a failure. I'm grateful that bige gave me six RCS, so it wasn't an expensive failed experiment. I'm bummed that the RCS (apparently) didn't survive, but I think the fish are very grateful.

I put the 6x RCS in the DT on May 18th. They all immediately started feeding out in the open, and nothing harrassed them. Up until the lights went out after midnight, I could quickly at any time find at least 4x of the RCS. By the next day I couldn't find a single one in the DT and never did again. Monday (19th) at lunch I found one in the sump. I never found it again, either. I think they were all eaten (or killed by the return pump and then eaten), probably by the Elephant Nose since it was at night. My wife wants the Elephant Nose, so no dwarf shrimp. Bummer.

I don't know what fish it's safe with, but my favorite freshwater crustacean by far is the dwarf orange crayfish. So much personality!!

I like the idea of DOC as an alternative to dwarf shrimp. They may be able to survive in the DT long enough to reproduce. I still have all 5x of my Amano Shrimp, so nothing harasses them. From what I can tell, DOC are no threat to fish (from here)

Actually, even small fish, snails, and other water plants could be housed with the crayfish. In my tank, the striped dwarf crayfish are living together with guppies, dwarf swordtails, and snails, and even the offspring of these species survive. Only ill specimens are removed by the crays, helping to preserve the health of the entire community.

Here's another site that says they're peaceful:

...unlike most other crayfish, suitable for some types of community tanks because they are fairly peaceful...I’d definitely recommend dwarf crayfish to anyone who’s looking for a new, fun aquarium challenge. They don’t require large tanks or very specific care and won’t destroy plants, which makes them a great choice for beginners and more experienced aquarists alike.

I think they should be safe from fish, too, because they are the same size as my Amano. We planned on getting the orange, pumpkin dwarf shrimp, so thank you for the great recommendation to get the same reproducing, peaceful orange critters.

[bige]

Don't count the shrimp out yet. I thought mine were all dead for 2 years. Then I upgraded tanks and found hundreds under plants and in the sand.

As far as the odc, I think that's what ate my shrimp as they molted. Ironically, the odc were killed by rcs as they molted. Pay back sux.

[George Monnat Jr]

Don't count the shrimp out yet. I thought mine were all dead for 2 years. Then I upgraded tanks and found hundreds under plants and in the sand.

As far as the odc, I think that's what ate my shrimp as they molted. Ironically, the odc were killed by rcs as they molted. Pay back sux.

Just my luck, I'll get some ODC, and the hiding RCS will eat them. And then the marauding RCS will get eaten by an Elephant Nose.

[Reburn]

George, sorry to hear about your RCS. Like bige said though they could be hiding if there is enough places. It's good that you started on a small scale experiment.

Bige that's hilarious I have never heard of RCS ganging up on ODC.

[bige]

I spent so much money on cool shrimp only to have them eaten. Hunter told me all shrimp are opportunistic and molting is a great opportunity. I just wish they (fish or shrimp) hadn't eaten an all black shrimp I bought from Aquadome. Those online are like $100. Gary sold it to me for $8 and it was beautiful. Maybe it will resurface someday.

[Reburn]

I feel you pain I bought a dozen orange sakuras and had a trio of guppies pick them to death. I've come to realize that the only way to really keep shrimp with most fish is to either.

A). Put a bunch of shrimp in where they reproduce faster then they get eaten and not be attached to the shrimp. Like 4 or 8 dozen.

Or

B). If you have expensive shrimp keep them in a shrimp only tank with a sponge only filter

I hope for you that he will resurface one day.

[bige]

Yes shrimp only is the way to go if you want the fancy shrimp. I did find a red white and blue shrimp that I bought a year ago so there is hope. So George there is hope.

[Makena95GT]

Only fish that is shrimp safe is an oto cat

[+usuzukuri]

I have a ton of rcs you can have if you want to come to south Austin. I have hundreds of little ones.

Hi bige, do you still have more shrimp you want to let go? Im starting a new shrimp tank and need more company Thanks.