# Shrimp in a discus tank?



## ykh (Jul 21, 2006)

your discus will snack on the shrimps.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

It's possible that if you start with enough red cherry shrimp and the tank is sufficiently well planted that they could outbreed the predation from the discus, but I'd bet on expensive fish food in the long run. You could buy more aggressive shrimp that would not have problems with the discus, but they will tear up the discus instead.

It's a very rough estimate, but 10 shrimp per gallon is the typical value given for dwarf shrimp. It varies based on the form of the tank, how heavily planted and filtered it is, and the like. In theory you could dump several hundred in there and hope.

Finally, 85 degrees is pretty hot for any shrimp. The more forgiving species will survive and will even breed, but they won't do as well as they would in cooler water (mid-70's.)

Just in case it's not clear, my vote is for "This is a bad idea, but it might work if you start things up right and are lucky."


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

No way. I have discus and shrimp not together. Discus like warm water 80F shrimp like it cool. So that's a big problem. My discus are not even that big and they have eaten little fish. A shrimp would be nothing More then an expensive dinner. I had sparkeling gouramis with shrimp and never saw babies or adults because they eat the babies and picked at the adults. They hunted my shrimp. A discus would do the same.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

I will try this in my 125. I will give the shrimp couple of months to breed and start at a temp of 78 and slowly build up the heat to 82 -84. I will only have couple of tetras and rasboras in there from the moment I see the shrimp are doing fine and the plants are filling in. After 4-6 months my Angels will go in and after 1-2 years the discus will go in. 

I think it should work, but give the shrimp a chance and slowly build up your temp, but in your case, introducing shrimp in a discus tank will be a great feast for the discus


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

Adult amanos do well


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

msjinkzd said:


> Adult amanos do well


I second this statement. Lower your discus tank temp to 82-83 and introduce ADULT amano shrimp - at least 1" or more in length, and it should work out ok.


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## cfi on the fly (Jan 28, 2009)

*My shrimp do well*

I have kepth large amanos with 4 large discus for years now. I have also had an exploding population of cherries. The key is for them to have lots of places to hide in and a heavily planted tank is the ticket. Keep my water at 82 and everybody is happy. They might pick off a few straggler cherries every now and then but they have to be right in front of the discus and asking for it.


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## gerrard00 (Jun 24, 2011)

cfi on the fly said:


> I have kepth large amanos with 4 large discus for years now. I have also had an exploding population of cherries. The key is for them to have lots of places to hide in and a heavily planted tank is the ticket. Keep my water at 82 and everybody is happy. They might pick off a few straggler cherries every now and then but they have to be right in front of the discus and asking for it.


I've had a very similar experience. I have about 30 RCS hanging out in my discus tank which I keep at 84. The shrimp walk around with impunity and dart away if the discus get frisky. I actually had one shrimp land on a discus' head for a second...I was so bummed I didn't have a video camera running! A few shrimp have gotten eaten, but mostly small ones who are unlucky. 

I also have a dedicated shrimp tank, so if the population actually dies out I can just transfer over some new settlers.


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