# Apistos and Rams with Shrimp?



## Ridgeback (Feb 6, 2010)

Hi...I am a newbie to the hobby in the process of setting up a 40 gallon breeder tank. I have a few "compatibility" questions before I start setting up my tank.

As a goal, I'd eventually (once things are growing nicely and my setup is established) like to have at least on Apisto variety (preferably Borelli) and a few Rams in the tank. I'd also like to introduce a cleanup crew using shrimp of varying varieties. 

As a newbie I am curious if clean-up crew shrimp (Amano, Cherry, etc.) can be introduced into a tank with Apsitos or Rams without becoming lunch? If this isn't possible, what are the recommended "clean up crew" alternatives?

Thanks for your help...


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## dyckster (Nov 28, 2006)

I had a tank with some Rams and Amano shrimp in it before. The Amanos were fully grown when I added the Rams so that could be why they never were on the Rams menu. The plants also gave the shrimp plenty of places to hide. 

Since cherry shrimp don't get as large my guess would be that many would be easy targets. Hopefully someone else has had some experience trying this. Good luck!


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## geeks_15 (Dec 9, 2006)

Amanos are big enough and should be OK. My apistos ignore them.

My cherry shrimp stay in hiding when dwarf cichlids are in the tank. I have some with my apisto cacatuoides trio in a 75 gallon and I seldom see the cherry shrimp. I sometimes wonder if they are all gone, but then I will see another one. The cherry's probably provide some live food for the cichlids with their shrimp offspring.

I had 6 ghost shrimp in a planted 29 gallon tank. I introduced a new female krib and she hunted them down one by one and killed them immediately. I literally released her into the tank and she had found and killed all of them in 15 minutes. They were too big for her to eat, but she killed them just the same. So I would be cautious with pelvicachromis species.


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## CrazyCory (Apr 29, 2009)

I used to use CRS as treat for my A. panda and A. Inca50. ^_^


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## dooboogoo (Jul 1, 2007)

I had a 29g with 4 A. borelli and I had a healthy shrimp population. I think it helps to have a good number of shrimp before adding the apistos. Adult shrimp don't really get eaten, I think they're too large.


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## darryfish (Feb 15, 2010)

In my experience, rams love to have shrimp for lunch. It doesn't matter that the shrimp are "too big" for them to eat (that's what I naively thought). My rams hunted them down anyway, killing them by biting at their eyes/heads. Once the shrimps were dead, the rams could eat them at their leisure (except when the Endler's came along and tried to get their share--everyone likes fresh shrimp!). Needless to say, once I realized what was happening, I quickly rescued the rest of the shrimp to another tank, as their population was decreasing rapidly! (Oh--this was in a heavily planted tank--I also mistakenly thought "the shrimp will have plenty of places to hide")


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## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

I don't think rams would eat adult amano. My amanos are bigger than my GBR. And they were fine with angelfish. Amanos are fighters. 
I wouldn't be so sure with RCS.


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