Shrimp and Loaches

[Katy]

We had some algae going to town in our 120, and Cloudhands wanted to put some Amanos in to help deal with it. I was afraid that the shrimp would quickly become expensive live food,but when the local fish store had them for $1.99 each, I let Cloudhands put one (of our established, well-quarantined) of our shrimp in the tank. It seemed to do well, and did a great job with the algae,so we added a few more. They are now HUGE, and this evening when the loaches and danios got Hikari algae wafers, one of them was right there in the middle of the scrum, and then started PULLING THE WAFER away from the scrum

We have Kubotai, Striata, Sids, Sumos, Batiks....

Clearly, your mileage may vary, but who'dathunk it?

[random2]

I have had ghost shrimps with yoyos without any problem. But never saw shrimplets. The shrimps used to be frequently berried but guess the small ones were food for other fishes. The adult shrimps fight pretty well when it comes to food.

I have also had indian dwarf shrimps in the same tank with Schistura semiarmatus and N anguilla. Again they ate few small ones and the bigger guys were untouched.

[starsplitter7]

Show pictures. That sounds great. i think some fish don't recognize the shrimp as dinner.

[PASoracco]

If i dump a bag of 50 ghost shrimp into my community tank with clowns, yoyos, darios, kubs, horsefaces and various pangios, there will only be a couple of the biggest and smartest shrimp left after a week.

[Katy]

Well, the amanos have clearly done well in the loach tank, as the two biggest ones were preggers! Cloudhands removed them just in time, and now we have a salt-water tank full of tiny little amano "babies" (forget what they are called at this stage, before they become shrimplets)

[Diana]

Your mileage sure will vary. The few times I have added shrimp to my tanks they were eaten within a few days. Many tanks have Loaches, but also several species of Catfish, and many other fish. It seems that in every tank there is at least one species that eats shrimp.

[cloudhands]

Out of all our tanks so far the tank with the pair of Apistogramma agassizii seemed to pose any danger to the amano in there. I put a smallish one in, and didn't see it for days and days. Then I saw it out and about, long after I had given up on it, and it looked nervous. Then Mrs Agassizi swam right at it and tried to take a little nip out of it.

I fished it out of there and put it in the kuhli tank.

I haven't tried any shrimp with the hillstreams yet.

[palaeodave]

Wow! How has it gone with the baby shrimp?

[NancyD]

I recently read of someone keeping cherry shrmp with sids, something I would not have thought safe. Since no fish are eating baby or adult shrimp in 2 tanks I may give them a try, I've lots of "spares" LOL. I'd hoped vailantella maassi & pangios would at least snack on the tiny ones. But added 10 & there's at least 50 a month later.

Anyone want to trade for some shrimp?

[Bully]

I had red cherry shrimp in with Sids and B. striata, and at one point was almost infested with shrimp. It soon changed once the cichlids went in.

[NancyD]

Dang! That's what's in my tank, sids & striata. I may try it anyway.

[cloudhands]

For us Sids and Striata are OK with Amanos (along with several other loach species)

Back there someone asked how it's going with the shrimp babies. The amano larvae are very hard to get all the way to adulthood. So far, none. I had one zoe survive 30 days in salt water, but now I can't find it. It may have molted into an adult, but also maybe not survived. It's tricky. We're on our third batch of Amano larvae in salt water.

[Birds'nBunny]

I haven't tried any shrimp with the hillstreams yet.

I have a hillstream living in my shrimp tank. He gets awfully grumpy when the shrimp climb on "his" rock, but I've never seen him do more than chase them away.