Loaches Online Forum

Is it okay to have both in the same aquarium or will the loaches eat
the shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda)? The shrimps are about .24 inches long. I also have Olive nerite snails any problems there? I would be looking to get 3 kuhlis as a part of a clean up crew going after debris i.e. extra dead live food and flakes that shrimps and snails don't touch. I would also add food just for the kuhlis.

I have a 55 gal aquarium. Heavily planted, lots of driftwood, C02 system and about 4 watts per gal for lighting. My substrate is Seachem Flourite Gravel Substrate and about 4 inches deep. Tank mates are angels, pencilfish, cardinal tetras, hatchet fish and siamese algae eaters.

The angels will be more of a problem with shrimp than the pangios but almost any fish can eat tiny baby shrimplets. If you decide to get the loaches get 6 or more, you'll see them more often.

Right now I got red tail botias, kubotais, angels, cardinal tetra and odessa barbs with my red cherry and amano shrimp. It's a pretty heavily planted 29G. I used to have kuhlis as well and they never bothered the shrimp. The cherry shrimp actually breed a lot and I never see them get attacked. Lots of cover and plants are good and java moss helps too.

If my angels dont get them, my pangio's do. It can be a pricey meal as I buy them by bags of 50.

hey DeStreGa5
I wouldn't recommend "red tail botias" (if they are modesta) with Kubs.
and I'd say that sooner or later the shrimp will be food for the loaches.

newshound wrote:hey DeStreGa5
I wouldn't recommend "red tail botias" (if they are modesta) with Kubs.
and I'd say that sooner or later the shrimp will be food for the loaches.

Na its not a modesta. It's more like this http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ab ... -elongatus which is also sometimes called red tail botias which is what the lfs called it. I also thought it was a confusing name when I bought it. They pretty much act like khulis to me. The loaches are most likely taking a bite out of the shrimp, but they breed so much I guess it's just keeping the population down so it doesn't explode in my tank, but I still see small and large cherries in my tank.

I had a big group of kuhli's with my RCS' and it never seemed a problem. It's best to put the shrimps in first and give em some time to multiply. Once you have a good population it's no problem if you have a heavily planted tank.