What is the safe fish to keep with Red Cherry Shrimp

[Dimos]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering what fish is safe to keep in the same tank with shrimp. I have a fish tank with tetras and a red tail shark. Lately the shark has been chasing the tetras a lot and they keep staying at the top, to avoid getting closer to the shark. Do you think it is ok to move the tetras in the shrimp tank? Attached is a photo of them, the are 1 inch each.

Thanks,

Dimos

[NoGi]

The general rule of thumb is that if it's big enough to fit in their mouth it's going to get eaten. That said, I've kept my choc cherries with endlers without much issue in the past. They were breeding so much I probably didn't notice juvi's going missing. On the other hand, those same endlers chomped away at my sulas. AFAIK, the only shrimp safe fish is the otto.

I understand, in some cases having fish in the same tank is unavoidable. In those cases, you have do what you can to ensure the shrimp and the juvis have sufficient hiding places that the fish can't get in to. Looking at the size of those tetras, once they get the taste of shrimp, there won't be any going back.

[DemonCat]

I have White Clouds, Neon Tetras and Oto's in with my red cherries. Of course, some babies and eggs will get eaten, but the population steadily grows and I am always find babies / mid sized shrimp who have grown up in the tank. 

Other small fish may also work - ember tetras, mosquito/chili rasoboras, drawf rasbora etc. I have generally found that fish that do not grow more than 3cm tend to leave the adults alone - so thats my general rule of thumb without any scientific evidence!

As @NoGi rightly points out, no fish/shrimp combination is 100% safe or foolproof, however the smaller and/or timid the fish, the less chances there probably are for them to all be eaten. 

Providing plenty of plants and stones/wood for the shrimp to hide in and around always help. 

[bluestarfish]

Even fish under the 3cm range can be a danger, my Cherry Barbs do sometimes hunt the shrimp, which is kind of interesting behavior to observe but I wish they wouldn't. The shrimp are too big for the barbs to eat, but I'm pretty certain several of the smaller ones got taken shortly after they molted as the barbs tend to mob things once they figure out its edible. (I'm going to eventually make my current tank a shrimp only tank)

 

 

[Dimos]

1 minute ago, bluestarfish said:

Even fish under the 3cm range can be a danger, my Cherry Barbs do sometimes hunt the shrimp, which is kind of interesting behavior to observe but I wish they wouldn't. The shrimp are too big for the barbs to eat, but I'm pretty certain several of the smaller ones got taken shortly after they molted as the barbs tend to mob things once they figure out its edible. (I'm going to eventually make my current tank a shrimp only tank)

 

 

Then it looks like I have to find another place for my tetras, before they get eaten by the shark...

[bluestarfish]

Yeah, or you could re-home the shark instead, they are notoriously aggressive and territorial fish and often won't tolerate others of their species (or conspecies) either.

 

Rehoming the shark seems like it'd be the easier solution anyway. How big is your tank again?

[Dimos]

29 minutes ago, bluestarfish said:

Yeah, or you could re-home the shark instead, they are notoriously aggressive and territorial fish and often won't tolerate others of their species (or conspecies) either.

 

Rehoming the shark seems like it'd be the easier solution anyway. How big is your tank again?

hmmm I also have a cichlid, which is the most peaceful cichlid you can get. Sometimes it chases the tetras, but not as much as the shark.

My tank is 20gallon and the shark is around 4 inches. Yes I heard you cannot have 2 red tail sharks in the same tank, it would be bad. So if I decide to rehome I will have to rehome both the shark and the cichlid, probably.

[bluestarfish]

Well, that makes it easier, 20 gallons is too small for the shark, it's also too small for most any kind of cichlid that I know of, and definitely too small for the shark+cichlid+tetras all together.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dimos]

3 minutes ago, bluestarfish said:

Well, that makes it easier, 20 gallons is too small for the shark, it's also too small for most any kind of cichlid that I know of, and definitely too small for the shark+cichlid+tetras all together.

 

 

 

 

 

But the rule of the thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon of tank. So (given that my tetras are 1 inch each and the cichild 2 inches) I have:

4 + 2 + 5 * (1) = 11. I still have room for 9 inches of fish.

[bluestarfish]

One inch of fish per gallon is a very outdated and poor metric for how much you can have in your tank. You need to take into consideration the fishes needs, not all fish are created equal when it comes to bio-load some are "messy" while others not so much, many fish need room to swim, being in too small a space is stressful.

 

Sharks for example need more than 20 gallons all by themselves, because they need room to cruise around, and they can grow up to 6 inches.

 

[Dimos]

Just now, bluestarfish said:

One inch of fish per gallon is a very outdated and poor metric for how much you can have in your tank. You need to take into consideration the fishes needs, not all fish are created equal when it comes to bio-load some are "messy" while others not so much, many fish need room to swim, being in too small a space is stressful.

 

Sharks for example need more than 20 gallons all by themselves, because they need room to cruise around, and they can grow up to 6 inches.

 

Yes, that's true! Recommended tank size for red tail sharks is bigger than 20 gallons. I guess I should be more careful on what fish to get next time... If you know someone with a pretty big tank that could take the shark please let me know. I live in the Boston area.

 

 

[Cleeon]

sorry, but based on My experience, I must suggest no fish for shrimp aquarium, We can not only think about is this fish will eat the shrimps ?

but I suggest We must think about other too, like will the shrimp not disturbing by fish waste/ammonia, fish activity, the fish maybe vegetarian but the shrimps maybe can not understand that, they will have fear and no joy in aquarium for the shrimps, but have some fish can be important, sometime We can send few fish to shrimps aquariums if the aquariums have too many other little bugs which disturb the shrimps colony, after the task finished, We must take the fish back to their own dedicated aquarium, I think it's more naturally :)

[Dimos]

9 hours ago, Cleeon said:

sorry, but based on My experience, I must suggest no fish for shrimp aquarium, We can not only think about is this fish will eat the shrimps ?

but I suggest We must think about other too, like will the shrimp not disturbing by fish waste/ammonia, fish activity, the fish maybe vegetarian but the shrimps maybe can not understand that, they will have fear and no joy in aquarium for the shrimps, but have some fish can be important, sometime We can send few fish to shrimps aquariums if the aquariums have too many other little bugs which disturb the shrimps colony, after the task finished, We must take the fish back to their own dedicated aquarium, I think it's more naturally :)

I agree with that!

[revolutionhope]

I'd like to chime in here. I've had very heavily planted tanks with fish up to 6-8cm in size with shrimps and the shrimps absolutely thrived..

However after a long period some fish must have discovered that shrimps were actuslly tasty snacks. Very soon all of the fish were munching on juveniles and babies and decimated hundreds of them!

[emoji111] [emoji173]
Will

[Cleeon]

Thanks Dimos and Revolutionhope.

I am understand that many shrimp keeper want to have a beauty aquarium with ornamental fish and shrimp swim together with peace, I know, cause I did it past ago ?.

But, as i stated above, please be patient and never thing again about that if Your purpose not just to have shrimp in aquarium, but want to have peacefull colony of shrimps, in my experience, even otocinclus, must be really veggie fish, can disturb the shrimps, even can make shrimplets "shocked" become shy, hiding along the days (maybe cause fear). For now, I even thinking why I keep fish like otocinclus to my shrimp colony only to eat algae, cause the shrimp is algae eaters too :(

if You want keeping shrimp with snails, I don't see much problem with it, as long as not too much snails.

attention, sorry for My English :D

[Kaylenna]

Has anyone tried/kept spotted rasboras with shrimp?  They're fairly tiny.

[Dimos]

11 hours ago, Kaylenna said:

Has anyone tried/kept spotted rasboras with shrimp?  They're fairly tiny.

hmm not sure, but I agree with the previous comments. It is better to separate shrimp from fish. Even if the fish is vegetarian, shrimp might feel nervous when having fish around. Plus, fish might eat some of the baby shrimp.

Thanks,
Dimos

[Kaylenna]

I wouldn't keep a slow breeding, pricey shrimp with fish, but if you're talking about Red Cherries...  Unless you have a good place to sell them, most people keeping them in good conditions will be overrun with Cherries eventually.  My cull cherries are multiplying surprisingly fast in the community tank with plenty of fish big enough to snack on babies.