# Small shrimp - Avoiding fish snacks



## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

My Bride and I are about to enter the world of shrimp owners. We have some Red Cherries coming from Matt, and my wife is worried that we've spent a chunk of change on fish snacks.

Matt said the shrimp are pretty young and shrimpy, 1/4" to 3/8" or so. The tank we want to put them in (20 gallon) is populated with a horde of Endler's Livebearers and two _Corydoras julii_, and it also has a big wad of floating plants (for incipient Endler's babies). For those who don't know the Endler's, they're tiny things - males top out at about 3/4 inch, and the females we have (all very young) are not much bigger (they top out at just over an inch). As the guy at the LFS said, Endler's have a hard time tussling with a brine shrimp. He's right - an Endler's will get a brine shrimp in its mouth and swim around with it like a toy poodle carrying a big teddy bear - it's pretty funny. Given that the Endler's aren't much bigger than the Cherry shrimp themselves, it seems there shouldn't be much of a problem, and Corys aren't supposed to be a problem, either. We have a spare 5.5 gallon tank we could set up before the shrimp get here tomorrow to put them in while they grow up a bit, if necessary, but why go to the effort if it's not needed?

Matt and I pretty much agreed that it shouldn't be a problem, but my wife wanted me to ask again just to be sure. What say you?


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## richy (Nov 8, 2004)

personally, i'd set up the 5.5G with a sponge filter and some plants for hiding to be on the absolute safe side and ensure maximum survival. very little effort for a whole lotta enjoyment.


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## Urkevitz (Oct 26, 2004)

The shrimp you are purhcasing should be okay, but the babies will probably be eaten by the endlers. I also would recommend setting up a shrimp only tank for breeding purposes.


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## iris600 (Feb 12, 2004)

I keep my CR's in a tank with endlers, and I have a bizillion babies. While I do think an endler could make a snack of the newly hatched shrimp, the babies are pretty good about hanging out in/near plant cover.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

I have a well planted 20H with more Endlers than I care to count. I added 6 adult Cherry Reds to it around four months ago and the population has been increasing ever since (both the shrimp and Endlers). I have baby shrimp of the size you're getting out an about in the Java Moss and the Endlers pay no attention to them.

Two weeks ago I added three juvi Apistos to the tank so I would expect the baby shrimp will need to be a lot more discrete in order to reach adulthood from now on.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I would guess they'll fare okay as long as you have some good cover at the bottom of the tank for them. Preferably something they can take cover in/under but the Endlers can't.


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## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

Great and specific answers - thanks! I'll show this thread to The Boss, and if she has any more questions, I'll post 'em. I imagine we'll put the shrimpies and the fishies together, and this will give me someplace to put some of the massive wad of Java moss we have - shrimp sanctuary!

Thanks again, everyone!


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## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

bharada said:


> Two weeks ago I added three juvi Apistos to the tank so I would expect the baby shrimp will need to be a lot more discrete in order to reach adulthood from now on.


I hope that you will not live to regret this action Bill. I have gone through 2 massive shrimp extinctions -- both times involving dwarf cichlids. The first incident involved the addition of a pair of _Apistogramma cacatuoides_ who decimated my entire collection of shrimps: tigers, bumble bees, red cherries, and a couple of Amanos. I was assured by the experts that the _A. cacatuoides_ are friendly and shrimp-safe. The second incident involved some _Dicrossus maculata_ who destroyed every single blasted crystal red shrimp. This was only 3 weeks ago. Again, I was assured that the _D. maculata_ is shrimp-safe, since it is smaller than the _A. cacatuoides_. Perhaps, I was the unfortunate recipient of some psycho-fish who are not representative of the species.

To add insult to the injury, these cichlids didn't devour the shrimps. They simply cruise and take ONE fatal bite to the abdomen of each shrimp. The shrimp die soon thereafter. So don't think that just because a shrimp doesn't fit in their mouths mean that it is safe. All this happened in a 20 gallon tank with plenty of mossy rock work as hiding places. If the tank were larger then perhaps I may have been able to get away with the combination, but I will never again mix these two species together. Those shrimps were not cheap, especially not the crystal reds. I'm just mad at myself for not paying close enough attention to them before it was too late. ](*,)


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Believe me, I'll have no regrets should the shrimp become Apisto treats.

The secret to my serenity is a 40 gallon tank that has over 120 Cherry Reds in it, with seven egg-carrying females making ready for another population boom. I also have a booming population in my 125g tank, but that could also decline shortly as I recently added a Gold Veil Angelfish in an attempt to reduce my guppy population. So far so good as the angel's attention is solely to the top of the tank where the guppy fry swarm like gnats.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Glenhead... I've kept baby shrimps with my Endler's and Corys with no problems, they seem to ignore the shrimp. Just have plenty of cover like thick grouping of plants, rocks & driftwood.


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## amber2461 (Jun 15, 2004)

I am sorry to hear about your loss, you had a very interesting collection of shrimps ...


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

30 gallons (very densely planted) - breeding pair of _Apistogramma borelli_ - scads of cherry reds - a few shrimp snacks now and then, but it hardly makes a dent. YMMV


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