# Platy fry and cherry shrimp



## Colorful (May 14, 2012)

Quick question, will newborn platy fry eat adult red cherry shrimp?


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

I doubt a fry would eat an adult shrimp but I'm just taking a guess here.


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## angelsword (May 16, 2009)

I just put some Molly fry in with my cherry shrimp for about 24 hours hoping they would eat some little critters that showed up in the tank. They didn't bother the shrimp at all.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Xenxes says his adult panda platties don't bother his shrimps at all.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Yep, even my adult platies (~2") don't bother the shrimp, or the amphipods which are much smaller (though I wish something would eat them). But they eat everything else--that's inanimate, flakes, sinking wafers, veggie sticks, ugh. I only keep 3-4 in my 20g now so they don't outcompete the corydoras and shrimp.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTtTnGRns2U&feature=player_embedded#!, goto 2mins, adult platy & shrimp eating together, not each other


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## JackFu (Jun 6, 2011)

I think they prefer vegetable matter more than anything. Mine go crazier for algae wafers and bottom feeder pellets than they do for typical, protein-based flakes.


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## reefdive (Aug 16, 2011)

One thing is for sure those platy are not starving ! I have noticed fish in a heavily planted and well fed tank may act diferrently than fish in a more or less bare tank . I know customers with shrimp surving and reproducing in Discus tanks but I also know many people who use cherries as food for them . We are making the environment for all these animals and it is possible to keep many things that in nature would no exist together for more than a few second's by keeping them full and dulling their survival instincts . Still those platies do have tiny mouths . Not sure if they all do . Many wild swordtail's won't eat their young but just about all the Man bred types will . Wonder if platies are like that ? Anything that won't eat tiny fry or eggs is a candidate for keeping with shrimp . Also if you can establish the shrimp first and get the tank densly planted that will go a long way . Oh nice tank!


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