Fresh Water Shrimp

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caribou

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
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Location
nebraska
I'd like to get some fresh water shrimp for my tank but I'm worried about them getting eaten by the fish. What fish need to be avoided when keeping shrimp? I have a peaceful community tank (not cichlids or large fish. Thanks
 
Let us know what fish you do have. If it is a peaceful community, you shouldn't have any problems. Try starting with a few ghost shrimp. They are sold as feeders, so if they get eaten you arn't going to be out the big bucks you would spend on more expensive shrimp.
 
Just for info...

Ive kept ghost shrimp with Betta, Neon Tetra, Angels, Corycats, Plecos, Guppies, Platys, and several barbs....not all of the fish listed were in the same tank, of course, but the shrimp have lived with all of them. I've also kept Amano shrimp with ghost shrimp and several other tropical fish in the same tank although I think the water temperature was a bit too high for the Amanos...
 
Like RogerMcAllen said just get some cheap ghost shrimp and see how they do. Then if they do fine (which they should) you can think about getting different kinds of shrimp or just staying with ghost shrimp.

Ghost shrimp are good scavengers that get 2 inches
Whicker shrimp (I've also seen them called blue-clawed shrimp) are just bigger ghost shrimp that get around 3 inches and may attack things
Wood shrimp are filter feeders that get around 3 inches
Vampire shrimp are filter feeders that get 6 inches
Cherry shrimp stay small at 1 inch so they are most likey to be eaten by things like ctafish
Amano shrimp get 2 inch and are good algae eaters

I have ghost shrimp, amanos, and two vampire shrimp. They are all peaceful. For the whisker shrimp, I say that they might attack things because I've had them before and they somehow killed a trapdoor snail and several ghost shrimp, but other people say they're peaceful so this is my experience with them.

Crayfish get large and will attack fish if they have the opportunity to. Watch out for shrimp you can't identify or haven't heard of. Many small prawns are listed as ghost shrimp or other names like freshwater lobsters or something and they get very large and kill other things.
 
stay to the vampire shrimp, but that is my own opinion. I kept most of other shrimp in my tank and the angels had a nice light snack. everythign from cherry to ghost to you name it.
 
Lance M. said:
Ghost shrimp are good scavengers that get 2 inches
Whicker shrimp (I've also seen them called blue-clawed shrimp) are just bigger ghost shrimp that get around 3 inches and may attack things
Wood shrimp are filter feeders that get around 3 inches
Vampire shrimp are filter feeders that get 6 inches
Cherry shrimp stay small at 1 inch so they are most likey to be eaten by things like ctafish
Amano shrimp get 2 inch and are good algae eaters

I have ghost shrimp, amanos, and two vampire shrimp. They are all peaceful. For the whisker shrimp, I say that they might attack things because I've had them before and they somehow killed a trapdoor snail and several ghost shrimp, but other people say they're peaceful so this is my experience with them.

Crayfish get large and will attack fish if they have the opportunity to. Watch out for shrimp you can't identify or haven't heard of. Many small prawns are listed as ghost shrimp or other names like freshwater lobsters or something and they get very large and kill other things.

Do the "whicker[sic] shrimp" you spoke of look like the "blue prawns" depicted here (scroll down past the "Ivory Shrimp" to the images above the heading of "Long-Armed Blue Lobsters")? If so, they are Macrobrachium rosenbergii and neither "get around 3 inches" nor generally (as adults) stay "peaceful". For an idea of what I mean, look to the following links and aquarist quotes (occassionally revised for grammar and emphasis):

Images:

http://www.aqua-addiction.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=24468

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/crec/prawn.jpg

http://southcenters.osu.edu/aqua/intro/sld013.htm

The following statements attest to the basis of the species' appeal (they have some following in the aquarium hobby) in a [voracious] character for which it is reviled by others:

they're nasty shrimp..they eat my small African cichlids...also shrimp pellets half their size!

i was the proud owner of "Louie" i had to give him to a friend of mine because he more than outgrew my 30 gallon tank. i would recommend keeping it alone unless you want it to kill everything. i had a 10" florida gar in the tank momentarily until i got my 55 gallon setup. it was for a very short time. two days later the gar was prawn food.he also ate a pleco, two snails, and my rafael cat. his normal diet was feeders and he loved shrimp pellets. Louie was definitely an awsome shrimp though. i gave him to my buddy to put in his 75g, and on my birthday Louie died . he was about 14" of body and about 8" of claw, by far the coolest aquatic pet that i have ever owned.

["Louie" is depicted in the first image link]

I have a blue prawn and
can verify it will catch and eat anything it gets it claws onto. The
LFS failed to warn me about this and I foolishly did the "there's only
one, I should grab it before it's gone" kneejerk purchase. It ate nine
tiger barbs, a whiptail catfish, a skunk, a beta[sic] and even a 6" bala
shark. Did I mention this loss was all in about the first three weeks?!

They're extremely agressive and complete hogs. I drop in three algae wafers and he'll find all three and attempt to eat them simultaneously, even bullying the Pleco to give up the one it's working on. Now Mr. Snappy is my population control tool for my pair of Convict Cichlids, added after massive fish losses when I opted to go with agressive species. The convicts, pleco, skunk and remaining balas all know to steer clear of him. Convicts seem rather peaceful in comparison. I would NEVER get another prawn should I loose[sic] Mr. Snappy.

That being said, shrimp of this genus (Macrobrachium, the largest clade of the Palaemonidae - a taxon including ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.) are not all predatory "tank-busters"; there are many "ghost shrimp"-type species and numerous substrate-burrowing detritus-feeders (e.g., "Indian pearl shrimp"). The catch is that even the largest species are almost indiscernible from ghost shrimp when young, and often enter (by the "vagaries of collection and wholesale facilities") shipments of feeder "ghosts".

The large species (often sold as "long-arm shrimp", "freshwater/blue prawns") do, however, make for endearing aquarium inhabitants, easily tamed and beautifully patterned. [/i]

Edit: On second thought, your "whicker shrimp" might refer to http://www.akwa.aip.pl/macrobrzdj.htm (admittedly highly unlikely); difficulties in positive identification are probably behind conflicting behavioral observation.

See www.petshrimp.com - look under "Shrimp Varieties" - for further information; the site's discussion forum is excellent.
 
Thanks for the input. I'll keep my shrimp selections for my visits to Red Lobster.
 
Veneer said:
Do the "whicker[sic] shrimp" you spoke of look like the "blue prawns" depicted here (scroll down past the "Ivory Shrimp" to the images above the heading of "Long-Armed Blue Lobsters")? If so, they are Macrobrachium rosenbergii and neither "get around 3 inches" nor generally (as adults) stay "peaceful". ]

Lol. Nice citing on quotes and for the mispelling the added "[sic]". The whisker shrimp were small prawns labeled as "Blue-clawed shrimp" in my lfs. And the first link you have shows exactly what they are when they're small. When you get them they are usually around 2-3 inchs but most people don't keep them long after that (maybe in a species tank though) because they are active killers. I have heard of one that was two feet long and kept in a pond inside a lfs.
 
Lance M. said:
When you get them they are usually around 2-3 inchs but most people don't keep them long after that (maybe in a species tank though) because they are active killers. I have heard of one that was two feet long and kept in a pond inside a lfs.

They can reach a length approaching 30 inches in captivity (including their chelae [claw] -bearing "arms"); I currently have a young one only about two or three inches in length.
 
Not enough Info on macros!

LOL whisker shrimp, are not macrobrachium rosenbergii which can get up to 10inches not including its claws. They r a memeber of the long arm macros and r somewhat territorial, large at 3 inches females smaller than that at about 2inches. They do not kill other shrimp or anything else for that matter. Scavengers like ghost shrimp, a little more territorial. I have had small ghost shrimp and small bee shrimp housed with them with no issue. I also have so called agressive red claw macrobrachium housed with them in a 55gallon tank and they dont bother anything. Red claws r even more agressive than whiskers but havent harmed a single fish or smaller non agressive filter feeders, I have a 4 inch wood shrimp fliter feeder who bullys all of them lol. I even caught him eating a worm once, go figure. Dont be scared of whiskers! there great pets.
 
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