Fishes suitable with shrimps

[ne0matr1x]

Hi there,

Apart from Otos and neon/cardinal tetra, I would like to know what other fishes are suitable to be kept with shrimps safely? (Crs, sakura, yamato, Malayan)

[eviltrain]

From my experience, there is no 100% safe fish. Not even oto. Because they swim too fast and may "crash" with shrimps and knock the shrimps out.

Even for small mouth fish will also tries to pick at the shrimplets when ever they can.

[equidorz]

Neon and Cardinals can never co exist with shrimps in my opinion. Ottos are ok with shrimps at least in my tank. Agree with Evil train that there is no 100% safe fish unless you buy a fake plastic fish. LOL, Just joking though.
Cheers.

[theludicrous]

yes, agreed. i've seen my neon/cardinal tetras bully them.

[3inone]

just giving some info.

cherry barb seems to bully other smaller lifeforms in the tank.
angel fish eats small shrimps.
guppy is peaceful
kissing gourami is peaceful.

those are from my 2 week experience

[rascal]

try not to mix them!! your shrimplet will get eaten even if there are many hiding place for them.

[alvinchan80]

i agreed with all the fellow forummers that try not to mix fishes other then oto with shrimps... I have 2 rosboras in my shrimp tank and i left them there because they are brought over from my old tank... they are always finding little things to nibble and try to see if its edible...
(OT - this morning just see my shrimps swimming around and trying to 'hitch a ride' on the rosboras.. once the shrimps touch the rosboras, they jerk away and my shrimps swam in another direction after... hahaha)

i think best to just keep it shrimps with oto..

[Soll]

From my experience (Just a few months)

Endlers, Guppy, Honey dwarf gouramis, Koi sword tail, otos are fine with my Cherry and snow ball. Never see them attacking any shrimp, Shrimplets wise.... not really sure but i do have some shrimplets growing up. And i feed them only once per day in a 2ft tank. Its a planted tank but not heavily.

Tiger barbs, parrots will eat your shrimps.

[ne0matr1x]

Thanks everyone for your generous feedback. I'm asking cos I want to have a planted community tank of not only shrimps or fish alone, but both to co-exist together. I think my tank will feel more "complete" when there is a combi of fishes and bottom dwellers. As I'm really a newbie, I wanted to try and experiment. Also the experienced gained will build up my confidence for a bigger set up. Anyway my 1st setup which I did in my office has:

FISHES: Cardinal Tetra, Green Tetra, Galaxy Rasboras, Boraras Brigittae, Boraras Merah, Oto, Tiger Hillstream Loach, Albino cory

Shrimps: Yamato, Cherry, Green, Tiger, 1 super small baby CRS - probably about 2-3mm!(which accidentally got there when I put frogbits)

Here is my experienced from the 2 months so far....
- All my Boraras Brigittae and Merah died, prob by white spots and too small but the rest of the fishes pulled thru (I've replaced them recently with Boraras Merah)

- 2 out of the 3 giant Yamatos misteriously dissappeared, probably died and eaten but surprisingly, the rest of the other shrimps (much smaller then the Yamato) did not. They were very happy and roam out in the open.

- But the biggest surprise so far is my baby CRS......after 2 weeks of not spotting it, I came to the sad conclusion that it had been eaten by the fishes or loach. But I was wrong. Spotted it 2 weeks later among the Nanas and it had grown significantly bigger! Was so excited to see it. Few days later spotted it again, this time even bigger than before (abt 6-7mm) and daringly went out in the open. But a galaxy saw it and started to peck at its shell and it went into hiding again.

My conclusion is (from my personal experience)........
- Healthy adult shrimps can co-exist safely with small peaceful fishes

- Small shrimplets can survive with fishes provided the tank is heavily planted, but strongly not recommended

- Death of the Yamatos not likely by fishes as it's bigger than the cherries and tiger. The fish would probably pick on the smaller ones if they are really hungry. Plus Amano himself often use Yamatos for his community tanks. Don't think he will intro an algae eater which will eventually be eaten by the fishes.
- Fishes known to feast on shrimps and live food are a no no (duh!)

Again, these were based on my personal experiences and observations of my tank for the past 2 months or so. Tank is situated on my office desk and I constantly observed them (very distracting ) during my work time.

If you guys have any experiences of keeping shrimps with fishes, do share!

Cheers and have a great sleepy Sunday!

[nick_tks]

Hi, from my experience, cardinal and neon are never peaceful fishes with shrimps. I used to rear shrimps and saw with my own eyes that my cardinal actually ate the shrimplets. Sometimes i even see them attacking the shrimps. Oto is a peaceful fish to be kept with shrimps. Apart from that, my colleague who is keeping guppies and shrimps together, seemed to have a tank full of offsprings from both side... Just sharing some information only. Correct me if i'm wrong...

[Mr.Oink]

My experience with neon tetra , Harlequin & Guppies with Sakura is ok provided that youe have lots of moss form the shrimplets to hide.
I once remove my mosses and all my shrimplets becomes food for them :P Lost about at least 20 of them!! sigh~

[pangcv]

My experience with neon tetra , Harlequin & Guppies with Sakura is ok provided that youe have lots of moss form the shrimplets to hide.
I once remove my mosses and all my shrimplets becomes food for them :P Lost about at least 20 of them!! sigh~

agree with that. my 4 ft tanks red cherry shrimp population keep growing until i need to take out some after sometime.

[jiajuen900]

No fish safe to keep with shrimps at the same time all fish can be kept and co-exist with shrimps provided you don't mind losing some shrimps once in a while and have lots and lots of hiding places.

I think any fish can be kept with shrimps, the shrimp death rate will depend on a few factors such as aggressiveness of fish, size of fish mouth, size of tank, amount of hid places

[ne0matr1x]

Hi all, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and feedbacks. Been very valuable to
me. Let me share mine too. Had a first start up tank in office for abt 3 months already. Very small only 30cm x 18 x 20. Had many fishes inside - cardinals, galaxy, oto, hillstream loach, boraras brigittae and also
many types of shrimps - cherry, green, yamato and tiger. Many species as was "trying out"

Here is was interesting, had a super small crs baby (abt 3-4mm) accidentally put into the tank. After 2 wks not seeing it, tot it's dead. But saw it and had grown abt double it's size! I had a fair amount of plants inside and realised it had hid under the nana roots all this while.

So I guess having plants help to keep them safe, although not 100%. But without it's definately no no. As for the adult shrimps, the fishes don't seem to bother them. All this through my observations on my office desk, the whole time. Very work distracting

Again thanks for sharing everyone. Have a great day!