# Discus and shrimp



## Telperion (Jun 12, 2006)

Will my cherry reds be okay living with some young discus?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

My guess would be that they won't live together so well and your discus would color up nicely.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

AaronT said:


> My guess would be that they won't live together so well and your discus would color up nicely.


Got to agree with Aaron. Get some amano shrimp and try them out.

-Pedro


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Yup Amano shrimp are the surest thing with keeping Shrimp and larger fish together. Of course you could always have a growout tank of cherry shrimp, and once you have a large population you could drop some in and I bet some will survive and reproduce at a slow rate if there's enough cover.

-John N.


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## Wood (Jul 27, 2006)

The discus will devour them, especially when they get bigger. I don't recommend it at all. As a matter of fact the LFS had a bunch of cherries and stuck them in a discus tank, all were eaten overnight, the owner told me. He lost a lot of cherries, but they were from a local breeder which he gives $1 store credit for each cherry so he didnt lose that much cash.

Don't do it is my answer.


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## Telperion (Jun 12, 2006)

Darn I guess I'd better go with snails or amanos then. I need something to aerate the substrate and/or clean up the gravel.


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

Isnt it true if you have enough hiding places for them they should survive?


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## ianiwane (May 6, 2005)

Yeah that is true. I know some people that have discus with cherries.


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## AlexTal (Mar 23, 2006)

Shrimp are not dumb. If they know there's a fish in there that'll eat them, they will make efforts to avoid them. However, a lot of fish aren't dumb, so if they know there are shrimp in there, they will make efforts to trick and eat the shrimp. It's really a toss up. You can put hiding places in, but the shrimp will come eventually and they need to eat, at that point, they're fair game. So you can keep them and having hiding places will increase their chances of survival, but nothing's definite.


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## jeff63851 (Feb 23, 2005)

Even if the shrimps do get eaten, look on the bright side. maybe the shrimp could be healthy food for the discus.


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## billionzz (Apr 9, 2005)

I think it could go either way, you would just need to give it a try.

I have cherries in with my discus and there doing well. But I do have a lot of cover and my discus are very finiky eaters.

Bill


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## shrimpy1 (Mar 29, 2006)

My experience coincides with Bills.

I have a 100g tank with decent, but by no means, lush planting. Cherries have been in the tank for half a year, and are reproducing. About 2 weeks ago, I introduced six 4-inch discus. I haven't witnessed the discus take interest or attack the shrimps. Nor have I noticed the shrimp population dropping.

Caveats: 
It's only been 2 weeks since I introduced the discus, so it's still early to come to any definitive conclusion. 
The discus are very fussy feeders, and are currently only taking frozen bloodworms and live blackworms.
Just because I don't see discus attacking shrimp doesn't mean it's not happening.
The discus may get more aggressive as they grow bigger.

However, as far as I know at the moment, the discus are leaving the shrimps alone (even tiny baby shrimps in clear sight on the glass).

To experiment, I would recommend getting some cheap cherries from local hobbyists, rather than blow away $$$$$$ on what may become a shrimpy dinner for your discus.

Good luck.


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## wolfbane (Aug 2, 2005)

I have had a small colony of Cherries and some Amanos in my 150 Discus tank for several months now. These are adult and sub-adult discus. No problems so far, the fish are well fed by me, so maybe they just aren't hungry! By the way, the cherries are carrying, as are the Amanos, and a pair of the discus just spawned! Wowzers!


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## aquaboyaquatics (Feb 22, 2006)

I would suggest some of the Macrobrachium shrimp or dwarf crayfish for a discus aquarium. The only thing is Temperature. Most inverts do not like heat. There are some Peru Species that can take the heat. Cherry’s Would be a chance. I would suggest the wild version of the Cherry first. They are mottled brown for a reason. Fish do not see them as well. 

It also depends on your Discus. Most aquarium strains of Discus have a hard time feeding them selves with gravel, let alone catching a shrimp. They are used to mashing there heads into a pile of food on the bottom of a bare bottom aquarium.

Mike


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## kotoeloncat (Mar 17, 2006)

I have had no problem with discus and cherries together

though I think that you will have to let the cherries enter the tank first and explore every nook and crany of the tank to allow them to hide and do their job the ninja way

my discus usually just try to peck at it, but never seen them actually eat it

the shrimp population is growing instead of decreasing ):


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