# Shrimp and the community tank



## Donald Hansen

I have a 55 gal community tank with a 3 inch angel, a blue Gourami, a Yoyo loach, plus a bunch of Black Tetras. I added a number of Ghost and Red shrimp as adults hoping they would survive. They not only survived but now are a thriving breeding colony that's been going for a couple of years now. Has anyone else had that happen?

DLH


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## Summer

that is interesting as i thought that the angels would munch on them. Pretty cool..


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## Donald Hansen

The real small ones know better and stay in the thick plants in one back corner near the filter intake. I've seen the angel looking at shrimp as small as 1/4 of an inch and do nothing, just swim away. Probably just too lazy to chase them.

DLH


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## Redbug

Hi Donald, I just had a look at your photos and
Wondered how you keep so many fish in the one tank?
Nice work with the shrimps, what are you going to do with them?*w3


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## Donald Hansen

Redbug said:


> Hi Donald, I just had a look at your photos and
> Wondered how you keep so many fish in the one tank?
> Nice work with the shrimps, what are you going to do with them?*w3


I've had a 55 gal for 40 years and have always done it. Since I've never had a problem I just keep doing it. One thing I've added since I posted the pictures is the addition of an air wand, just in case the HOB fails. Also the air pump, which is in another room, is plugged into the my computer's backup power supply, another "just in case". Never tested it to see how long it would run but the supply is a 750 VA unit.

As far as the shrimp go, I started with some Ghost shrimp that were over an inch. When they survived I added RC shrimp which I bought from someone here. Because the RCs were so small and the only tank I have is the 55 gal I raised them in one of those cloth fry bags until they got larger. Even then I don't think they are much larger than 1/2 inch. I like having the shrimp because they are always busy. Has anyone here ever seen a shrimp attack and eat a live White worm. Cool!

BTW Thanks to this site I found out why shrimp, and certain species of fish, would only last a few days. Now I take over 2 hours to climatize.

DLH


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## tbub1221

that's awesome , this is exactly what im attempting.. i currently have an active post open where we were disusing my case like this so i wont go in to it.. but ill ask did you ever see your ghost eating baby rcs ?


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## Donald Hansen

tbub1221 said:


> that's awesome , this is exactly what im attempting.. i currently have an active post open where we were disusing my case like this so i wont go in to it.. but ill ask did you ever see your ghost eating baby rcs ?



To tell you the truth I've never considered the idea. I wonder if that's why I have so many more Ghost than RCS. I don't think RCS get their color until they get to a certain size. Can anyone verify that? Anyway I'll keep a lookout to see if that's happening.

DLH


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## tbub1221

I know snow TVs don't shoe a lot until there older. But iv also had some 1/8 " bright Ted I could dee across the room even at that little size. So I really don't know. Iv herd also of larger ghost cannibalizing anyone small enough (this was earlier today on another forum as I am still looking in to the matter myself)u should go to the freshwater for dale and trade area and see mo post titled I need shrimp.. it was a post that somehow was turned to discussion topic lol but. There is a member onhere iv talked with about shrimp a lot hid name is James he's on that topic a fee times and he raided n sells TVs and others. He's given me loads of sound advice.. good luck with it m8


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## Donald Hansen

tbub1221 said:


> I know snow TVs don't shoe a lot until there older. But iv also had some 1/8 " bright Ted I could dee across the room even at that little size. So I really don't know. Iv herd also of larger ghost cannibalizing anyone small enough (this was earlier today on another forum as I am still looking in to the matter myself)u should go to the freshwater for dale and trade area and see mo post titled I need shrimp.. it was a post that somehow was turned to discussion topic lol but. There is a member onhere iv talked with about shrimp a lot hid name is James he's on that topic a fee times and he raided n sells TVs and others. He's given me loads of sound advice.. good luck with it m8


Yes, I was going to order some Tigers from him until I saw that. I think he's the one I got my RC shrimp from. Right now I'm waiting for 2 bunches of his Subwassertang to arrive.

DLH


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## tbub1221

lol snow tv"s lol gotta love android auto correction , i wrote that wile i was doing something from my phone , glad you got the jist of it.. let me know if things seem to change 4 ya as we are looking at similar interest and issues. BTW:: the Tangerine tiger is an awesome shrimp , id luv some myself , as they may be a welcome addition in place of or along side more cherry's or a few crs . good luck with it all m8 and take care


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## jrman83

The thing here is it is possible to do what you say. However, without lots of cover for even the adult shrimp to hide it cannot happen. I have seen one of my Angels with a full-grown Amano (3x as large as any other shrimp I've ever owned) in his mouth and in one of my tanks with RCS an adult Guppy with a full grown shrimp half way down its throat.

Either way, with plenty of cover or not, it is a risk. As long as you realize there are likely many young ones getting eaten and maybe an occasional adult with larger eaters like Angels.


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## Donald Hansen

jrman83 said:


> The thing here is it is possible to do what you say. However, without lots of cover for even the adult shrimp to hide it cannot happen. I have seen one of my Angels with a full-grown Amano (3x as large as any other shrimp I've ever owned) in his mouth and in one of my tanks with RCS an adult Guppy with a full grown shrimp half way down its throat.
> 
> Either way, with plenty of cover or not, it is a risk. As long as you realize there are likely many young ones getting eaten and maybe an occasional adult with larger eaters like Angels.



I'm sure I have losses but I've had adult shrimp, about 1-3/4 inch, swim back and forth half way up the side of the tank without any of the fish bothering them. It's interesting that the small ones, around 3/8 inch, can crawl across the gravel without a problem and yet when I feed the fish adult brine shrimp the fish go crazy with the angel first in line. The area where the real babies hide is so thick that no fish can get to them. Even with a foam filter on the intake I find still find baby shrimp in my HOB.

DLH


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## susankat

All it will take is for one fish to decide to try it, then all the others will be on board. My angels eat full grown female guppies I know they would take out the shrimp in a hurry.


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## jrman83

Hell, even most of my Amanos weren't that big - 1.75 inches. What kind of shrimp do you have? I thought Amanos were among the largest available of the more popular shrimp.

It doesn't take much to trigger an instinct and that is what it is. Some people believe if you keep your inhabitants fed it won't happen. This isn't true, although if you starve them they will eat what they can. Most people do not starve their fish however.


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## James0816

Like I mentioned to tbub earlier, the thing with dwarf shrimp that works against them is that people use brine shrimp as a live food source. There in...larger fishies see shrimp as a delicacy and will have no problem at all going after the small babes. Once they hit adulthood, they do stand a better chance of survival.

And since we're dealing with Angels, it's only a matter of time. They will keep the population in check. It's free food after all. 

But yes, very doable. Heavily planted will be the key.

Haven't heard much of Ammano's being eaten. Unless it would be by an Oscar or something similar.


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## FishFlow

I've attempted this route before. Kept adding $2 shrimp to my over populated 29 gallon community tank, then wondering where all my shrimp were going. Somehow, 2 ghost shrimp did manage to survive the long haul though.


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## Donald Hansen

FishFlow said:


> I've attempted this route before. Kept adding $2 shrimp to my over populated 29 gallon community tank, then wondering where all my shrimp were going. Somehow, 2 ghost shrimp did manage to survive the long haul though.


I started with Ghost shrimp because they were 49 cents at my LFS. The first 2 or 3 batches disappeared and I assumed they had become fish food and yet I never saw any fish going after them. Then, wondering if I haven't climatized them properly, I tried again. This time I took over 2 hours to do it and the shrimp survived. It was then that I added the RCS.

When I said that I have shrimp as big as 1 ¾ inch I was just guessing so I though I would try to measure a big shrimp when it was near the glass. Of course they won’t cooperate. I did measure a Ghost that was 1 ¼ inches and he is not the biggest by far. The biggest RCS I was able to measure was about 7/8 of an inch. Until I can verify that I do have shrimp bigger than that I’ll go with that.

BTW Until I learned from this forum how to climatize fish properly I could never keep certain fish such as Neon Tetras.

DLH


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