Shrimp suggestions - community 29G

[AquaBry]

The tanks stats to the right are correct for my current configuration. In the past, I have always gone with ghost shrimp because they are easy to acquire and are pretty good scavengers, and are typically not hunters.

The problem? I just bought 5 and can only find one. I did see one of my black-skirted tetras swimming around with one of the small shrimp hanging out of it's mouth as it chomped on it.

So what species would you recommend that may be more appealing to watch but that is also unlikely to get chomped or attack the fish. My tank runs warm 80-82F.

Thanks for any recommendations.

 

[HN1]

No shrimp will be safe with those fish IMO. Any would be expensive snack toys for the fish. Ghost shrimp are a good choice based on price. What is an "octo"?

 

[AquaBry]

It is funny. The first batch of Ghost Shrimp I bought in Nov 2008 and they lasted over a year, it is only this round that I noticed one of them getting eaten. Otto would be an algae eater that gets up to 1-1.5 inches max. I had 3 of them but 2 didn't make it. The third I thought was long gone until I caught it swimming around a couple nights ago. I sometimes go weeks without seeing it...

 

[BigJim]

Try a bamboo shrimp or any other larger filter-feeding shrimp.

 

[cwt]

I'm only familiar with my red cherry shrimp, but I'd think that if you can breed the shrimp in a separate tank, to the point where they'll outnumber the fish by about 20-1 (and it doesn't take much)... maybe they'd have a chance. But stranding a handful of them in with the predators, you're probably out of luck, unless the shrimp have a great deal of moss or other plants to hide in. And any tank with that much moss isn't going to be very attractive.

 

[veetors]

Bamboo shrimp are really cool with their fins for collecting food. They get pretty big too!

 

[AquaBry]

...stranding a handful of them in with the predators, you're probably out of luck, unless the shrimp have a great deal of moss or other plants to hide in...

To put it in perspective, here is an old image of my tank. As you can see there are a lot of hiding places for little shrimp. Perhaps that is how the first batch survived.

The mollies, neons, platy, and betta are long gone but the layout is pretty much unchanged. I will check on the bamboo and red cherry but I don't think any of the local fish stores carry them...