shrimp, crabs, or crayfish?

[GoatcheesePizza]

Hi, I am in the process of setting up a new 10g tank and I have had one before so Im not that new but I am wondering which creature would do best in my community tank? I want them to clean the tank, leave the fish alone for the most part, look good, not be eaten by the fish, and be easy as the fish to take care of. If i think of anything else I will ad it on later. I am not quite sure what I am going to have in the tank yet. I was thinking of maybe some small fish like the neon tetras and maybe some mollies and other fish like that. and a couple (or just one) small algae eater. I know for sure Im going to get glofish because those things are saweet! lol But anyways... my uestion is as stated.. Which would go better in my tank... some shrimp (preferably smaller ones), a couple crabs or a crayfish?

Thanks for everyones replies!

 

[Fdsh5]

I would have to say shrimp. Crayfish will go after any slow enough fish and they are fin nippers. Crabs usually require somewhere to perch out of water and are great escape artists. Shrimp won't bother the fish and the shrimp babies are little snacks for the fish. Just my two cents

 

[HN1]

+1.

 

[rucka]

well, there's a few options u can choose, but shrimp would be the best choice. for shrimp, u can stick with cherry shrimps or many other types of small shrimps such as zebra shrimp. i would keep 5 of them in the 10g. as for crabs, choosing the right crab is much harder. fiddler wont work since they are brackish. red claws r also brackish but can live in fresh for a longer period of time. vampire or micro crabs are the only freshwater crabs i know that wont eat ur fish. However, they will need some land as well as water. if u go with crawfish, u can only house one and will always have a risk of them eating ur fish. Thats applied to all types of crawfish. good luck!!

 

[GoatcheesePizza]

Thans for the replies guys! Do you think I could put just a couple bigger shrimp in there? If so, what kinds of big shrimp are there?

 

[Frognugget]

Amano shrimp get bigger than most dwarf shrimpand are voracious algae eaters, but they aren't very colorful.

Bamboo shrimp are fairly large too but they are filter feeders so you could have at most 1 of em in a well established 10 gal, which may still be too small for it.

Tiger shrimp get a bit bigger than rcs if my memory serves. They are also fairly hardy.

An orange dwarf crayfish may also work, I've read that they are less likely to murder your fish. However I have no experience with them.

 

[rucka]

no, dwarf orange crawfish r quite aggressive after getting used to their tank. i have one and it eats whatever it grabs including it's tankmates...

 

[siva]

Vampire crabs are terrestrial crabs so they can't be kept successfully in an aquarium, they need a paludarium.
Fiddler and red claws need brackish.
All of those crabs need to be out of the water 50% or more of the time so a 10 gal tank with fish in it wouldn't work because you'd have to drop the water level too low to give them a place to climb out.
Thai micro crabs aka spider crabs would work, they are the only truly aquatic freshwater crab..though they can be hard to find.
CPO aka dwarf patz aka mexican cray would work. They are about 2" and I've never had a problem with them going after fish. Their pincers are teeny tiny. They are the size of a large ghost shrimp. Mine are on the bottom with little julii corydoras and they have no probs together.
Other crays need a 10 gal or more just to themselves.
Shrimp are perfect for a 10..I wouldn't go with any larger shrimp like the bamboo shrimp. They are filter feeders and are prone to starving if they are unable to filter enough food from the water so a tank with more water is advisable.
Red cherry shrimp or blue pearl shrimp would be a great place to start. And don't forget about snails..another interesting useful invert..I would add a couple nerites to keep your algea in control, they won't reproduce in freshwater and overtake your tank

 

[HN1]

Vampire crabs are terrestrial crabs so they can't be kept successfully in an aquarium, they need a paludarium.
Fiddler and red claws need brackish.
All of those crabs need to be out of the water 50% or more of the time so a 10 gal tank with fish in it wouldn't work because you'd have to drop the water level too low to give them a place to climb out.
Thai micro crabs aka spider crabs would work, they are the only truly aquatic freshwater crab..though they can be hard to find.
CPO aka dwarf patz aka mexican cray would work. They are about 2" and I've never had a problem with them going after fish. Their pincers are teeny tiny. They are the size of a large ghost shrimp. Mine are on the bottom with little julii corydoras and they have no probs together.
Other crays need a 10 gal or more just to themselves.
Shrimp are perfect for a 10..I wouldn't go with any larger shrimp like the bamboo shrimp. They are filter feeders and are prone to starving if they are unable to filter enough food from the water so a tank with more water is advisable.
Red cherry shrimp or blue pearl shrimp would be a great place to start. And don't forget about snails..another interesting useful invert..I would add a couple nerites to keep your algea in control, they won't reproduce in freshwater and overtake your tank

The spacing made this a little hard to read. Not sure what caused that, but great post! Very nice.

 

[siva]

Thanks. You're right that does look wierd lol

 

[pizza guy]

You can have Yucatan crayfish.

 

[siva]

You can have Yucatan crayfish.

Yeah supposedly they don't bother fish but with those long pincers I'm skeptical. I would possibly try it myself, but not in a 10 gal.

 

[pizza guy]

Aren't their pincers used to strain food out of the water?

 

[siva]

No it will eat shrimp pellets, bloodworms, flake, whatever. I don't know of any crays that are filter feeders. They'd have to have fans instead of pincers. Or in addition to pincers I suppose.

 

[GoatcheesePizza]

Ok so the tank is set up and has a couple live plants, and few fish. When could i ad the shrimp? i put the fish and plants in yesterday... and i want green colored shrimp after seeing some on google (lol) or maybe red. now i know the red shrimp are either called cherry red or blood shrimp but what about green shrimp? are those just genetically altered or do they actually have a name?

 

[siva]

I ordered mine under the name Caridina babulti "green". Red cherry shrimp or neocaridina, so you can mix them. Use this as a guide to make sure the shrimp you pick don't interbreed: Will These Shrimp Interbreed? .:. Information on keepign Freshwater Aquarium Shrimp Species in the same Aquarium without creating a Hybrid Shrimp

 

[Gillie]

Rednose/pinnochio shrimp are a bit larger, look cool and they eat algae.

 

[andresdeo]

I have being asking myself a similar question, so along the same line, is it possible to keep goldfish and shrimp?