Shrimp for plants

[Blake0509]

I'm looking to buy shrimp for a planted tank im going to start, in this tank I will eventually have my breeding pair of bristle nose (not very big yet about 2-3inches) and possibly my gibbiceps which again is still only small (at the moment!/will be moving once it gets to big) the other fish don't really matter as its just small tetras and a few swordtails. Any suggestions how will the plecos deal with the shrimp? And if so what shrimp will be best for a planted tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Shrimp won't bother adult bristlenose or plecos/ gibbiceps, but they will eat any fish eggs so if you want to breed the bristlenose, do not add shrimp or snails to the tank.

If you don't care about the shrimp eating eggs, any small shrimp will be fine but avoid Macrobrachium because they get big and eat fish.

 

[Gypsum]

Tried cherry shrimp with L199s (Hypancistrus furunculus). It went badly for the shrimp, but well for the plecos. As ever, these things depend on your point of view. A few posts on internet message boards (not just this one) suggested that Hypans would be okay with cherry shrimp. Yeah, not so much. I was chatting on Facebook with a guy who succesfully breeds lots of Hypans, and he said that his plecos were also delighted with the shrimp cocktails on offer.

But I didn't give up on shrimp. The plecos are living with two vampire shrimp and two bamboo shrimp. When the vampire shrimp moved in, the plecos scurried up to them, paused, said, "Oh. You're kinda big," and scurried off to pleco elsewhere.

Of course, those are carnivores, while ancistrus and gibbiceps are primarily herbivores, although they have slight omnivorous tendencies. I don't know if they would go for small shrimp, but if you're not sure, get big ones.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Amano shrimp are my go-to for planted tanks. They get bigger than RCS and more of the other colorful shrimp, so a lot of fish are less likely to go after them. Great algae eaters and a lot of personality for an invert.

 

[Lazysavage]

This is pretty late but swords would be my biggest concern. Swords (in my experiences) love shrimp and would probably snatch up any shrimp babies. I would go Neocaridinas if you’re going to try. They are hardy and would eat biofilm and leftover food rather than the pleco’s algae. They would also cleanup those left over algae wafers.

 

[Blake0509]

This is pretty late but swords would be my biggest concern. Swords (in my experiences) love shrimp and would probably snatch up any shrimp babies. I would go Neocaridinas if you’re going to try. They are hardy and would eat biofilm and leftover food rather than the pleco’s algae. They would also cleanup those left over algae wafers.

That will explain we're half the shrimp have gone ?, I will have a look at Neocaridinas as have never heard of them, thanks for your reply ?

 

[Lazysavage]

I have blue dream neocaridina in my planted tank. There are some kuli loaches a Cory ember tetras and neon tetras in there so water parameters are fine but I don’t really have to worry about those larger fish over hunting. I probably lose some babies but I started with 3 cull shrimp and now ( 3 mos later there are probably about 50-100) this is also after I lost some to November’s CO2 fumble.