# Question about shrimp and my dwarves..



## DrewWoodside (Mar 20, 2008)

I have a 29 gallon with 2 bolivians, an appistogramma cac. and a checkerboard.. yes it's a volatile combination but they haven't gone to war quite yet. My question though is about cleaner/ghost/cherry shrimp. What is their purpose in the tank? I've got a lot of plants. Do they take care of waste or algae? Also can i mix multiple species of shrimp? cherry and ghost? Do the fish ever have problems with them? Finally do I have to consider them as fish regarding space?


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## ME_AND_GREENTERROR (Jan 21, 2008)

well in my experiences with ghost shrimp and a couple of cichlids i have taken care of for friends........ they will eat these shrimp like popcorn...


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## DrewWoodside (Mar 20, 2008)

so a bolivian ram or a cockatoo cichlid will consider shrimp to be lunch? Can anyone confirm that?


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## ME_AND_GREENTERROR (Jan 21, 2008)

i would say yes... the shrimp are fast but sooner or later they will be lunch..


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

G'day *DrewWoodside*,

If the shrimp can fit in a cichlids mouth, it's going to be lunch.


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## DCguy (Mar 9, 2008)

I know a few apisto keepers who maintain tanks with shrimp. However, these are only the full grown adult shrimp. They love to snack on a tank of cherry shrimp babies. You might get away with keeping a few adults, however, unless you are "into" shrimp I don't see why you would want to add them.

DC


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## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

DrewWoodside....Bolivians won't bother adult cherry shrimp but will snack on the juveniles. Dutch Dude keeps a large colony of cherry shrimp with bolivian rams. I believe he said he had 200 or so in a 50 gallon tank, so I assume they survive okay :wink:

I keep a small colony of cherry shrimp (not with cichlids) and they will rid your tank 100% of cyanobacteria and can be fed algae wafers. They won't be very active if combined with fish but by themselves they are very entertaining and will swim around much like bees fly. They are interesting animals.

To get a colony established you'd want to start out with 20-30, because a lot will be eaten during the initial dive into the tank and then subsequent juveniles will also be snacked on.

Ed


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I would stay away from ghost shrimp. People that have used them as algae eaters instead of amano's or cherry's have reported them spearing and eating smaller fish. I believe I've seen at least one thread here on it if you search ghost shrimp.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Smaller fish as in some tetra?

I have a 55g SA community setup and I've always wanted a few shrimp, Ghost Shrimp are the only ones available around here however.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Deffinately tetras and up to small female apisto's and checkerboards.


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## peterl (Nov 27, 2006)

Shrimp are about the best clean-up crew available, IMO. They keep my tanks spotless.

I keep full grown Amano shrimp with my bolivians. The fish don't even notice them. Smaller shrimp, such as cherrys, would definitely be snacks with any cichlid. On the plus side, Cherry Red shrimp are profilic breeders. If you start with enough to keep a few alive, you should have a ready supply of live food for your fish.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Ok, I'm talked into it.

Getting some shrimp for my 55 gallon SA community tank! It's way under stocked and looks empty so some shrimpies will look nice in it.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

I indeed keep abouth 250 shrimp (yes Ed,....the number is increased) in a 50 gallon tank with 7 Bolivians. The Bolivians don't bother adult shrimp becouse they are realy hard to crack. They do snack on baby shrimp but with a large colony this isn't a problem. Most baby shrimp spend their time close to the surface on big leaves of the Echinodorus or between the roots of floating plants. As most of you know,...Bolivians and apisto's don't spend much time near the surface. make sure the shrimp have some good cover and floating plants to take shelter. I suggest a group of at least 30 shrimp and if possible more. You could breed a smaller number in a spare or Q tank to abouth 50 or more and add them to the 55 later on. You do need to feed a large number of shrimps becouse there won't be enough algea. Just slightly overfeed the fish with flakes and you will be OK. You can also feed the shrimp algea wafers.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Will shrimp and cory's get along?

I do currently add wafers to the diet of my SA community tank.


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## DirtyBlackSocks (Jan 24, 2008)

Corys may or may not eat shrimp during their molting periods, provide a lot of tight crevices and caves for the shrimp to hide in and they'll be fine.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Yeah, going to redo my tank tonight, it's now heavily planted but going to add some smaller rock caves to it.

I'm excited now about shrimps!


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