Aggressive Amano Shrimp

[Bugdozer]

I had unexplained vanishing celestial pearl danios in my tank, and panda cories dropping dead for no apparent reason (but always the smaller ones). Then today we saw an amano shrimp not only capture a danio, but also attack one of the cories. So now I know where the vanishing danios went, and I imagine the cories which died were either injured by the shrimps, or simply got so stressed that they pegged out.
So... does anyone have an idea how to either stop this aggressive behaviour, or suggestions for other shrimp species to replace the killer amanos?

 

[DrRob]

Amano's will go for weakened fish, but it's also worth getting a good look at the claws and making sure that they are indeed actually amano's. There are quite a few similar looking shrimp that are quite predatory, and occasionally they sneak into the hobby.
 
As for replacing them, cherries would generally be my answer for benign shrimp that are simple enough to keep, they also, given the right conditions, will breed in the home aquarium, so they number up well.

 

[Bugdozer]

They're definitely amanos. I've had them for a few years now with no problems, but it's since they've started sharing the tank with fish that are smaller or the same size as them that the problem has surfaced. Previously they co-habited with black phantom tetras, x-ray tetras and platies in a different tank. The panda cories are still young so not full size just yet, but still bigger than I'd have expected the shrimps to attack. I do wonder whether it's because they are also inhabiting the bottom that might be triggering it. The CPDs are all smaller than the shrimp, so I'm not entirely surprised - although I did a bunch of research online prior to buying the CPDs and all the indications were that they'd be fine together.

 

[StevenF]

I am a little surprised reading this.  The only suggestion I have is to feed the shrimp algae wafers.  If the shrimp are well feed they hopefully will have less desire to eat meat.  I have been concidering CPDs with Amano shrimp.  I might have to put more thought into using another type of shrimp.  Out of curiosity  how big is your tank?

 

[gmc1]

I witness my amano take cichlid pellets out of my corys and rams quite often.I don't think he's aggressive though.Just greedy.

 

[Baccus]

Is the tank heavily planted? Is it possible the shrimp are not getting enough food, hence the attention shown to the fish?
The size of the tank and number of shrimp could also be a factor.
The only shrimp I have seen attack a fish (literally caught a neon tetra as it swam past) was a macrobachium which are well known for their fish catching and eating skills.

 

[Far_King]

I've never seen this behaviour in any of my Amano's.  They generally seem to be peaceful but there are no small fish in with the larger ones, only in my smaller tank but the Amano's in there are smaller too.
 
As mentioned, I make sure I feed algae wafers and catfish pellets.  They love rushing out and grabbing a pellet before the fish can get there

 

[gmc1]

My amano is comical.Will lock on to any pellet a go for it.dosent care what's hovering around it.