Shrimp eaters

[chek]

Hi wonder if someone can help me solve this mystery on which fish is eating my shrimps.

I added some cherry/purple shrimps to my tank which consists of neon, rummy nose, oto, cherry barbs and corys. Most of the shrimps did not survive more than a day...discovered a number of shrimp carcases

The interesting observation is that the shrimps that survived (about a week now) are the 2 whose fully developed the cherry red colours wheres the rest, which are lighter in colour became fish food.

[Quixotic]

The trick to minimising predation is to plant heavily. With more plants, shrimps will have more hiding places.

As a rule of thumb, shrimps that can fit in a fish's mouth can be potential food. Shrimps also moult from time to time, during which they are most vunerable. Can anyone absolutely guarantee your fishes won't take bites out of them?

Howver, there are exceptions of course, but it's all about risk management. Lots of hiding places help.

If there are carcass, the cause of death may not be the fishes but something else, like how did you acclimitise your fish, is the CO2 too high/not enough dissolved oxygen, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate issues etc. Shrimps turning pale and opaque is a sign that the shrimps aren't healthy and dying soon.

[go9ma123]

I'm pretty sure oto are harmless to the shrimps but, other fish can stress them out or they can be eaten by the fish.

[redmondmok]

1.Are these newly added shrimps?
2.It may due to water condition changes and the shrimp cannot take it.

Your suspects, my witness:
A>neon: seen them try to take a quick bite on the smaller shrimps
B>rummy nose: same as neon
C>oto: mine do not disturb the shrimps
D>cherry barbs: they will attempt
E>corys: feed on those dead shrimps

Hope this helps

And like what Quixotic says "As a rule of thumb, shrimps that can fit in a fish's mouth can be potential food" and I have absolutely no doubt about that. Cause my Mosquito Rasbora (as small as 12mm) will eat the shrimp-lets....

[chek]

Thanks all. I noticed the rummies and cherry barbs nudging the shrimps too. My tank is already quite well planted and it looks like only the 2 original cherry shrimps (the 2 red ones) survived so far and clever enough to find the right hiding place. I'll probably stay away from shrimps for now.

[song76]

Seem like Im not the only one with tis problem... Facing the same problem too...
Whatever shrimps I add into my tank usually "dissappear" within a week or 2...
Anyway, from what I observe, maybe rummies who are the culprit here, cos, they tend to stay on the bottom base...

[marcusy]

i'm facing this problem too.... me too have 10 rumby nose in my tank 3week ago brought 10 cherry now left one .. is it true tat is not suitable to keep shrimp wif fishes in planted tank?

[Quixotic]

I think you need to read better.

The trick to minimising predation is to plant heavily. With more plants, shrimps will have more hiding places.

Howver, there are exceptions of course, but it's all about risk management. Lots of hiding places help.

It has been done before as chances of succeeding is much higher if you plant very heavily.

[kiasu]

Yamato shrimp is quite safe because it is bigger then other shrimp.

[Chee Jin]

I have seen with my own eyes my group of black neon tetras ripping a live cherry shrimp apart. Hence, I think it is either the neon tetra or the rummy nose. I have seen lfs keeping endler with shrimps, so I think they should be able to coexist. Hence I am thinking of getting some cherry shrimps to try out on my endler tank.