Amano shrimp attacking fish?

[lewis.r]

Hey guys,

Yesterday I picked up 1 amano shrimp in the hope that it would keep on top of the algae in my tank which is mainly just brown Algae.

I did lots of research on them before I actually got them to make sure that it wasn't going to effect my fish in anyway.

I have since come across a couple of articles that say that attack and eat healthy or living fish.
As you can imagine I'm quite concerned with this as I have had 2 of my platies for around 2 years now and they sleep at the bottom of the tank at night.

Stocking levels are 5 danios, 5 white cloud minnows, 2 platies and the shrimp In a 23 gal tank which is currently low tech planted dosing easycarbo.

Anyone had any experience of the shrimp attacking fish?? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Fresh2o]

I've kept amanos over the last 4 years with fish smaller than the ones you've mentioned (ember tetras, celestial pear danios, otocinclus) with no issues.

 

[lewis.r]

Thanks mate! Will have to keep an eye out then but hopefully all should be find.

Keeping just 1 also means they can't gang up on fish which I have seen in a couple of videos where there have been a few.

Fresh2o, do you know whether shrimp should be kept in groups or is one okay? And do they go by the same inch per fish rule for stocking?

 

[Autumnsky]

Amanos love to eat meaty foods despite them being called Algae eaters.

The ganging up on a fish is often when the fish is ill and likely dying already. when they are hungry they will behave crazy.

I had Amano in with my dwarf shrimp and was only feeding veggie algae food very small amount for a long while and then added a Omnivore sinking wafer from Hikari and the little guy was frantic to grab hold of it and snatched it out of the water and ate it!!! Like he had been starving.

 

[lewis.r]

Hmm hopefully then his diet should be okay that it doesn't get to that point.
He mostly hides throughout the day and comes out when the tank lights are off to feed, is this normal behaviour?
Again that worrys me slightly as the fish sleep at night

 

[Jazzy cap]

FYI: I had 6 Amano shrimp in my community tank housing long finned black skirt tetras, silver hatchets, black neons and fancy guppies. I actually witnessed 2 large Amanos attack one of the large black skirts together and bring it down, despite the fact that I was feeding them very well! The very next day, I moved all of the Amano shrimp into their own tank. i don't trust them around fish, especially as they grow larger. They hunt in packs, and they are very greedy! Now I make sure that I keep them well fed so that they don't turn on each other! I just don't trust them around fish, but love having them in their own tank! They are very interesting little creatures!

 

[lewis.r]

FYI: I had 6 Amano shrimp in my community tank housing long finned black skirt tetras, silver hatchets, black neons and fancy guppies. I actually witnessed 2 large Amanos attack one of the large black skirts together and bring it down, despite the fact that I was feeding them very well! The very next day, I moved all of the Amano shrimp into their own tank. i don't trust them around fish, especially as they grow larger. They hunt in packs, and they are very greedy! Now I make sure that I keep them well fed so that they don't turn on each other! I just don't trust them around fish, but love having them in their own tank! They are very interesting little creatures!

thanks for the reply, I'm just going to keep 1 only in the thank then. I watched vids on YouTube of that happening and you say it's happened as well!
I have had my one shrimp for 3 weeks now and he doesn't bother any of the fish at all. So 1 only is fine for me to avoid the pack hunting behaviour

 

[Jazzy cap]

You are very welcome! Happy fish keeping!!!

 

[Coursair]

There are Long Armed Shrimp that are sometimes mislabeled also. They can be predatory to fry and small fish.