Paedocypris Progenetica (one of world's smallest fish) with shrimps

[Starlett]

Happen to chance by this pretty rare species of fish in LFS and they were keeping with crs tank.
According to the lfs, this species is very safe with baby shrimps as they are even smaller than the shrimps. Their food is powdered form, even finer than gravidas. Even if they would have a fight, the shrimps will win.

Anyway, I bought 5 of them and have it now in my cherries tank.
Have anyone have kept this species before with shrimps?

[Urban Aquaria]

I also got a few too, although they are small and don't bother shrimplets that are juvenile size or larger, they are still large enough to hunt and eat newborn shrimplets (those tiny transparent 1mm size ones)... in fact their small size allows them to hunt the tiny shrimplets even more efficiently than larger "small" fishes.

I've observed them diving into and weaving through hairgrass and moss eating newborn shrimplets (a task even my boraras brigittae in the same tank can't achieve), hiding places basically cannot protect shrimplets anymore... so probably still best not to add them to a shrimp tank if you're breeding high end shrimps.

Btw, they don't specifically need powdered food... mine are eating the foods that i feed my other fishes, like NLS small fish formula, Hikari micro pellets/wafers and even Hikari sinking wafers (they hover around the pellet or wafer and take bites as it softens in the water).

[Starlett]

I have them in my cherries tank. Oh, I hope the won't kill off all my shrimplets, but I dont have any at the moment though.
If that's the case, maybe I will consider moving them over to a small spare tank that I have.
Did they hunt down all your shrimplets?

[Urban Aquaria]

Well, i've been keeping them in my quarantine tank for closer observation, and the tank's shrimps are just culled lower-grade ones, so i wasn't too concerned with them eating those shrimplets, i considered it sort of like free live food for the little fishes.

The saving grace is that these fishes have small tummies, hence individual fishes don't seem to eat up alot of shrimplets at one go. Newborn shrimplets grow very fast and molt almost daily, so the ones that manage to survive for a few days will usually already become large enough not to be seen as food... therefore if you only have a few of these fishes and a relatively large population of cherry shrimps that are constantly breeding, then it probably wouldn't affect the shrimp's population growth too much.

On the other-hand, if you are breeding Black King Kong CRS shrimps and every shrimplet is like a precious treasure, then its definitely no go for these fishes.

[Starlett]

Well, i've been keeping them in my quarantine tank for closer observation, and the tank's shrimps are just culled lower-grade ones, so i wasn't too concerned with them eating those shrimplets, i considered it sort of like free live food for the little fishes.

The saving grace is that these fishes have small tummies, hence individual fishes don't seem to eat up alot of shrimplets at one go. Newborn shrimplets grow very fast and molt almost daily, so the ones that manage to survive for a few days will usually already become large enough not to be seen as food... therefore if you only have a few of these fishes and a relatively large population of cherry shrimps that are constantly breeding, then it probably wouldn't affect the shrimp's population growth too much.

On the other-hand, if you are breeding Black King Kong CRS shrimps and every shrimplet is like a precious treasure, then its definitely no go for these fishes.

Thanks! Well, I definitely won't risk any fishes in my crs tank, though they are normal grades, that was why I have them with the cherries instead. I may just leave them with the cherries because these fishes I think are quite a rare and not so common species? I don't think they can be imported in big quantities like endlers or guppies.
I read that they may potentially be extinct quite soon, but maybe it's common in some other lfs.
I had 5 but came home to see 4 of them only. Not sure if it has already gone to heaven.

[Urban Aquaria]

They are quite an uncommon species to find on sale at LFS... though they have been available locally from time to time even from a few years back. I remember seeing them sold in pre-packed bags labelled as Ruby Rasbora.

I guess they are probably being bred by enthusiasts and breeders for commercial sale, which might explain why they are okay in our normal tank conditions (i read their original black water habitat water can go below pH 3.0, almost as acidic as coca-cola).

Yeah, they are really small fishes, like baby fish fry, have to put them in small tank or else quite difficult to spot them.

[Starlett]

They are quite an uncommon species to find on sale at LFS... though they have been available locally from time to time even from a few years back. I remember seeing them sold in pre-packed bags labelled as Ruby Rasbora.

I guess they are probably being bred by enthusiasts and breeders for commercial sale, which might explain why they are okay in our normal tank conditions (i read their original black water habitat water can go below pH 3.0, almost as acidic as coca-cola).

Yeah, they are really small fishes, like baby fish fry, have to put them in small tank or else quite difficult to spot them.

True, I read they need ph3 and was wondering why they can survive in our ph. Problem is now I don't know how to find their dead body in my shrimp because they are too small. I have a 1 gallon + tank, but would be cruel to let them live inside right?

[Urban Aquaria]

I think a 1ft nano tank with ADA Mini-S dimensions (ie. L30cm x D18cm x H24cm) would be nice for a small group of these fishes... around 13 liter/3.5 gallon seems suitable with good filtration and maintenance. With their tiny size, it'll really enhance the scale perception and make an aquascape look alot larger.

[Starlett]

Thanks so much for your comments. I'll see of they eat my baby shrimps or not but currently no berried ones, could be because I am still trying to balance my low ph.
If they happen to get berried soon then I may get more plants(i know you said it doesn't help), and more fire reds to keep the shrimp population healthy
If I have the space and time,I would set up another 1 ft nano for them. The fishes are really cool and due to the fact that they are only available during certain times.
The lfs told me that the the stocks stopped coming in for 8 years, then few weeks back they managed to get these current batch of ruby rasboras.

[gboy22]

I have 6 in my shrimp tank. Any idea which LFS is selling them now?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Starlett]

I have 6 in my shrimp tank. Any idea which LFS is selling them now?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Are they feasting on your shrimplets? Haha. I got it from gc.

[Il Pirata]

They are on sale again these couple of weeks at Y618. I'm not sure they are paedocypris progenetica or paedocypris carbunculus. Anyway do note that if you net them out of the water, most of them will die hours after you take them home. You need to scoop them out gently with the water. And yes these have been acclimatized to normal PH.

[seudzar]

Sighted them at green chapter too

[Starlett]

They didn't feed on my shrimplets so far. I have some brigittae too and the shrimplets seems to be spared.
The fishes seemed hardy too, no die offs after bringing them home.
In my opinion, you should buy the ones that are already in the tank as they are already somehow acclimatized to our local waters. Those that are on bags, we are not sure what are the waters like, as I know they naturally come from very low ph and even slightly brackish.

[Ingen]

They didn't feed on my shrimplets so far. I have some brigittae too and the shrimplets seems to be spared.
The fishes seemed hardy too, no die offs after bringing them home.
In my opinion, you should buy the ones that are already in the tank as they are already somehow acclimatized to our local waters. Those that are on bags, we are not sure what are the waters like, as I know they naturally come from very low ph and even slightly brackish.

I have a totally different experience, I got 50 off Aquatic Avenue about a week ago and only about 20 remaining in my shrimp tank. I can't even find the bodies of the dead fishes, I just do a count daily, sadly I lost about 3-5 daily and no idea why, maybe they water is just not suitable for them.

After reading UA post, I'm having my doubts to have them in my shrimp tank haha. I wonder if chocolate gurami and kubotai will hunt them down if I put them in my 2ft tank.

[gboy22]

anyone saw this recently at LFS?