Anyone try cherry shrimp in tank with tiger barbs?

[ColdKoi]

Sounds like a bad idea… and I’m pretty sure the barbs ate the lone ghost shrimp I had, but the bamboo shrimp in there are doing good.

Was thinking about putting some cherry shrimp in the 75 with the barbs once I get a batch or 2 of them bred in the other tank. The comets in the 29g are going to the pond this weekend and the cherry shrimp are moving in.

I also got a few different carpet plants and some different moss that I’m throwing in the 75, ideally want a decent carpet and some moss on the driftwood before moving any more shrimp in there. Im thinking that would provide enough cover for the shrimp to hide from the barbs since it’s already decently planted with stem plants…? I don’t know. They both can move at light speed when they want to so…

I expect a percentage of them would become midnight snacks, which is just nature doing it’s thing, but I’m not going to try it if they’re going to be eradicated overnight!

[Autumnsky]

I haven't kept Tiger Barbs, but have read many threads of Tiger Barbs eating bby fish and also a few of eating up shrimp. In the case of these fish, they do not have to gulp them down in one gulp, but can bit at them killing them and then eating the rest of the shrimp. A number of nano fish I had would actively hunt the shrimp. even adults and peck/bite and kill them off that way. Also sometimes it can seem to work and then one day half your stock are wiped out.

If it were me, I would just add a handful of cull adults and see if you can keep track of them for a couple weeks before adding more.

I tried adding adult shrimp to my tank last year, again, thinking the larger shrimp would possibly be okay. But guess what? With a hugely grown in and well established tank, tons of DW, moss and Subwassertang in billowy clouds, they were mostly gone in a few days and then a few lasted a bit longer and then just one... and then none, maybe 2 weeks. Once they get a taste for the specialty snack I think that's the end.

The bigger shrimp are not the size of snacks.

[ColdKoi]

Fair enough, I wasn’t expecting zero loss but hoping it would be manageable with enough cover/hiding spots


The comets have gone to the pond now and finally got to see one of my koi I put in there last year. That sucker sure has grown, he’s over a foot long now!

So the cherry shrimp are now homed in the 29g tank. That’s where they’re going to mainly reside for now. The “overflow” population of them i will put into the 75g barb tank and with any luck the main colony will sustain the overall population as I’d like to keep some shrimp in the 75g to pick away at things that the others aren’t!

Like you say, I think it’s going to be best to wait till they’re fairly mature before putting them in there so they won’t just be a one bite snack for the barbs. By the time the shrimp I’ve got “do the deed” and all that, the barbs are going to be at least a year old

[Autumnsky]

Not exactly related, but how they get a taste for something. I had Neons with my Angelfish since they were small Angelfish. (long time back now) And no problems from Angels at all, maybe 2 years. Then buying new Neons (smaller than the adults in the tank longer term) And Angels very much full grown, decided to slurp up the Neons, small ones first, then took right on even eating the bigger adults. Saw one get sucked up right in front of me!!!

Guess who went to a new tank?

I had added new Neons to the tank on a regular basis because I wanted a huge number of them, so it wasn't even that unusual that there were smaller fish in there.

Just see what happens.

[ColdKoi]

Yea there’s no doubt the barbs will be snacking on them, just hoping it’s not much faster than they can multiply in the shrimp tank!

I’m thinking there’s really no sale value of the shrimp offspring around here, so if the barbs keep on top of population control that’s just fine. It’s a bit of a weird area to try and sell home bred fish, most people rather just buy them from the big box stores and of course the big box stores won’t buy from home breeders since they’ve got their own supplier contracts. The nearest brick and mortar fish shop is a 2h drive from here, they might be a candidate for some sales but that’s not economically feasible for either of us