Shrimp munching Killie

[Critterlvrok]

Every night I come home feed the fish and set and watch everyone eat. Tonight I was watching everyone and noticed that my Killie was down in a decoration at the bottom of my tank. She is fairly new but has mostly stayed at the top of the tank so far so I was concerned. I watched her (she was inside a decoration) when I noticed it looked like she had whisker! I realized it was the antenna of a ghost shrimp. I thought she must have just snatched it up so i watched her and she started stalking another shrimp. She already had a shrimp so large she couldn't swallow it all and she's stalking another one! Needless to say she is now in my backup tank with an algae eater because I'm afraid she's going to choke on fat sassy shrimp. Btw it took 3 hours for her to finally swallow the entire shrimp. No more ghost shrimp for Ms Oink.

 

[siva]

What kind of killie is she? I keep and breed four types, and they really aren't shrimp safe. They like to stuff whatever they can fit into those wide mouths.

 

[Critterlvrok]

She is a GW killifish. I say she but I'm not sure it could be a male. Very small right now but she is doing well in my backup tank today. At least I won't have to worry about her choking on ghost shrimp. Is there any shrimp species that would get big enough to keep with her?

 

[siva]

Nope, I don't think so. I don't actually keep golden wonders, but they get much larger than the killies I do keep, so with a mouth that large I would think they would eat just about any shrimp. Even if it was too large to fit in their mouths, like say a large filter feeding shrimp like a bamboo or vampire, I would think they would probably peck it to death.

 

[jetajockey]

I keep fundulus chrysotus which are a smaller killie and they tear shrimp to pieces like its going out of style.

 

[Critterlvrok]

Thank you both so much. Great info so I'll just look at some corys for cleanup. Thanks again great community here glad I joined!

 

[siva]

A warning with that though...my first killies, a pair of Gardneri's, both died one day after inhaling entire sinking pellets I had dropped in for the cories (they were Hikari sinking wafers). They were just small enough to slip in those wide grins. I would make sure enough flake gets to the bottom regularly for the cories so you don't have to add wafers or pellets to the tank. Or you could always use something that softens quickly like shrimp pellets and place them on the bottom so the killie does grab them up on the way down.

 

[Critterlvrok]

Thanks for all the great info. I decided to get another killi and as luck would have it I got a male this time. Yeah! They got along great for a bit and now we are doing the mating dance. Problem is he wants to dance all the time and she say "enuf dude!". He's started chasing her now and I'm a bit worried but I added more cave decos so she can hide. Since it's only a 10g tank I don't want to push my luck and overstock by trying to get another female so any advice to keep him from wearing her out? Btw I added pennywort to the tank today so maybe I'll have some babies. Never had baby fish before so I guess we will see

 

[Critterlvrok]

Oh and I'm going with a Nerite snail as cleanup. Once I can find one is this measly excuse for a fish store area

 

[siva]

Golden wonders get huge. I would consider 29 gals the absolute minimum for them. I'm not positive their max, but I've seen them atleast 4" long. I would have to say a female stuck in a 10 gal with a male will be harassed too much. They need upgraded to a larger tank and a couple more females added. I stock most of my killies with several females per male. And yes, you will almost surely end up with fry.

 

[Critterlvrok]

Thank you for the advise. I did online research and it said 10g would be fine at first online info says 4.5 in max. I can't do a 20g atm but I can split them up. Just proves the first hand experience is better than all the researching anyway. Thanks again