# Mixing different kinds of shrimp in same tank



## Chicago Jeff

Hello all. I am planning on getting a few Red Cherry Shrimp (or possibly other type) for a tank I am setting up and was wondering if I can mix other types of shrimp. Would there be a problem with them getting along? There are so many kinds of shrimp in many cool colors now on Aquabid and ebay. 
Thanks in advance .

Jeff


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## James He

If you don't worry about inter-breeding, you can keep most of them together in one tank.


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## armedbiggiet

Your shrimp going to be very bad looking as mix breeding like that you are going to end up alot of "no color shrimps" or just brown like back in teh wild form.


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## timbruun

When looking at shrimp it's best to look at the scientific name to find out if they will interbreed. Cherry which is a neocardina will interbreed with other neocardina but not with others generally. All the cardina interbreed also. I've got red cherry with green shrimp and they are doign great. They both require similar water parameters, as in GH, KH and pH. They also stay about the same size .


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## Chicago Jeff

Thanks all, maybe I'll stick to RCS's only.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Chicago Jeff,

Here is a really good compability chart that I like.


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## timbruun

Try this one. Alot more to it.

Click Here


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## Chicago Jeff

Thanks guys . That opens up another question regarding keeping shrimp and hoping that they *don't* crossbreed. I understand now that mixing shrimp may cause undesirable crossbred shrimp that may be, for lack of better words, ugly. If I were to keep shrimp that are proven *not* to crossbreed, and they got along, I could basically keep 2 or more types of shrimp in the tank? This would be for aesthetic purposes only.


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## timbruun

For sure. Like I said, I have cherries and greens in the same tank. The nice part is the green start breeding at a smaller size so you can get excited about that earlier on until the cherries start breeding. Ghost shrimp are known to be more aggressive and eat other shrimp young. Or can. Similar water needs and sizes would be great.


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## Scipio

timbruun said:


> When looking at shrimp it's best to look at the scientific name to find out if they will interbreed. Cherry which is a neocardina will interbreed with other neocardina but not with others generally. All the cardina interbreed also. I've got red cherry with green shrimp and they are doign great. They both require similar water parameters, as in GH, KH and pH. They also stay about the same size .


Not all Caridina will interbreed. I don't want to come off as rude but please make sure you do proper research as not to place misinfomation like this. There is already plenty if misinformation on this hobby here in the US and I'm sure you ment no harm.

The Malawa shrimp (Caridina pareparensis parvidentata) is not known to date to interbreed with any other Caradina. Amano shrimp (Caradina japonica) will not interbreed with other caridina. The Sri Lanka (Caridina simoni simoni) is another shrimp that at the moment is not known to interbreed with other caridina. The Red nose (Caridina graciliorostris) and the Malaya shrimp (Caridina sp.) are considered safe with most caridina. Caridina seems much to generalized.

Now Neocaridina is another thing.... most seem to be to willing to muddy up.

I personally have kept regular Tiger shrimps (Caridina cantonensis) with Green shrimps (Caridina sp.) for over a year with no interbreeding. And at the moment I have orange eye Blue Tigers (Caridina cantonensis) with Green shrimps (Caridinam sp.) and yet I still have no interbreeding.


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