# mixing shrimp species



## PoohBear (May 19, 2007)

Can I mix different species of shrimps? Will there be aggression or territory issues? How many shrimp can I put in a 5 gallon planted tank? Thank you. I just bought 3 black diamond shrimp (I think they're also known as bee shrimp?) and got a "bonus" tiny ghost shrimp that jumped into the net and the lfs gave me for free rather than try and get it out of the net.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Some shrimp species will interbreed. If you plan on selling shrimp you don't want this to happen. Here is a chart that tells which species do & don't... http://www.planetinverts.com/Will These Shrimp Interbreed.html

Most species of shrimp will exist in peace together, I've not had any problems with the ones I've kept together. Different species have different care & enviorment needs so check into that before keeping different species together.

Just make sure that ghost shrimp is a true ghost shrimp & not some long arm shrimp which will catch & eat other fish & shrimp.


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

A ghost shrimp will be fine with your adults but will (or at least _possibly_ can) eat babies if your adult bee shrimp have babies. As for capacity, I had a 10 gallon tank that was easily supporting a red cherry shrimp colony that numbered 100+ adults and at least an equal number of shrimplets and juveniles, so I would think a 5 gallon (presuming the tank was well-aged) could hold 50-100 shrimp without much problem.

As for compatibility, the key thing you want to avoid is interbreeding/hybridization. In general, the best way to be sure you are safe and to avoid that, especially as a beginner, is to have no more than one _Caridina_ and one _Neocaridina_ species in the same tank. Bee shrimp are a _Caridina_ species, so that means you could safely add one _Neocaridina_ to your tank without worries.

Among the most popular _Neocaridina_ shrimps are the...


Red Cherry Shrimp
Yellow Shrimp
Snowball Shrimp
Blue Pearl Shrimp
All four of those are relatively easily enough found, especially if you check auction listings on Aquabid.


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