neocardia, and dwarf crays, together in the same tank

[Magnum Man]

I would have never guessed it, but I have the shrimp, and the crays living together in the same tank… one of each 4 inches apart, with no issues noted… coincidentally both are orange…

 

[Magnum Man]

there are less neocardia in this tank, and almost twice as many dwarf crays… 3, and 5 originally… I couldn’t find a shrimp when I got the camera… crays are out though… 3 within 6 inches in the 2nd picture…

 

[Magnum Man]

a shrimp, and a cray, hanging out in the same corner of the tank… this is a different, bigger shrimp, than I saw earlier today…

 

[GaryE]

It'll be interesting to see how that's working in six months, once the tank settles in and things get sorted out by the inhabitants. I'd expect the crays to eat the shrimp, but it would be great to be wrong.

 

[Magnum Man]

3 orange neocardia were added several months ago, and I never saw them again, and then after a couple months I added 5 dwarf orange crays… there initially was a lot of mulm in this tank from the previous fish ( Tilapia ), so I imagine so much food they could hide in it… several gravel vacuums later, there is still quite a bit of mulm, compared to most normal tanks, but now at levels the shrimp and crays are much more visible… the sword fish fry seem to eat it as well… most times I plop down to watch the tank , 4-5 are visible, and there doesn’t seem to be any aggression between the crays, or between the crays and shrimp, although it really wasn’t my intention to have both in the tank…

 

[GaryE]

Unintentional experiments rule!

I doubt you'd see much in daylight. Crays are often night time stalkers. They may not be able to take down adult shrimp, but it would be curious to see if any young ones survive. They'd have to get past the swordtails too, though.

 

[Magnum Man]

well they all appear to clean out the remaining mulm in the tank, but they also love the algae cookies I add… I’ve not seen food battles between the shrimp or crays, but I witnessed a tug o war over a cookie, between a female sword and a cray the other day

 

[CassCats]

Mexican dwarf crays are very personality-dependant. My old girl tolerated NOTHING in her tank. Even if the plants weren't where she wanted them, she would move them. She did not tolerate shrimp and would go out of her way to try to grab them.

They have such fun personality! Perhaps you've gotten some tolerant bunch who are well fed enough to not bother with the adult shrimp. They vary so much with their personalities, it's very possible.


My old girl, she was so cute