# Blue Velvet Shrimp?



## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

blue velvets are like cherry shrimp just blue, darker than blue pearl. and yes a betta will probably eat them you might be able to do 5 shrimp in a 1 gallon but they populations is likely to grow fast. blue velvets are a color morph of rili shrimp so they are basicaly a blue neo shrimp


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Yep, refer to shrimpkeeping.com and the water parameters for Red Rili or Cherry shrimp. they should be nearly identical to these shrimp.

Dwarf shrimp have very little bio-load and fair better with an established tank with bio-film. a 1 gallon bowl can be ok as i have several orange shrimp in a 1.5 gallon glass cylinder. 

They aren't great algae eaters, mainly scavengers looking for detris and loose food bits. Consider planting the tank with moss or low light plants to encourage the growth of bio-film. The reason i recommend low-light is because you don't want to battle algae in a small tank. Just a lot of needless work if you could avoid it.

Bettas are temperamental and may not take too kindly to shrimp as tank mates. I definitely wouldn't put them together in a 1 gallon tank. Bettas actually do far better in 4+ gallons.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 26, 2012)

acitydweller said:


> Bettas are temperamental and may not take too kindly to shrimp as tank mates. I definitely wouldn't put them together in a 1 gallon tank. Bettas actually do far better in 4+ gallons.


Yeah, no I meant keeping a number of blue velvet shrimp by themselves in a one gallon tank. Then my question about the betta is if I could keep ONE with a betta that is in a 5 gallon tank. Bettas usually get along fine with a snail or a ghost shrimp in that size tank so I didn't know if they were small like cherry shrimp and therefore might get eaten or if they are larger and non-agressive like ghost shrimp.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Blue Velvets are extremely easy to keep and breed like rabbits, similar to many of the other Neocaridina species. If you want to keep them in a 1 gal tank, I would def keep 5 max. You'd have to do weekly 10-20% water changes to keep the water quality up in order for the shrimp to thrive for such a small tank. 

What is your Tap water like in your area? These shrimp do very well in a more alkaline water condition. 

I would not put them with bettas. Bettas vary in personality... some can be super docile, while others are crazy aggressive and will attack anything that moves.


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## honda237 (Aug 11, 2010)

speedie408 said:


> Blue Velvets are extremely easy to keep and breed like rabbits, similar to many of the other Neocaridina species. If you want to keep them in a 1 gal tank, I would def keep 5 max. You'd have to do weekly 10-20% water changes to keep the water quality up in order for the shrimp to thrive for such a small tank.
> 
> What is your Tap water like in your area? These shrimp do very well in a more alkaline water condition.
> 
> *I would not put them with bettas. Bettas vary in personality... some can be super docile, while others are crazy aggressive and will attack anything that moves*.


Agreed, even if they are docile, still don't trust them, last year i gave 20-30 almost adult cherries to my girlfriend to add to the tank, and by the next day the betta probably ate and killed more than half of them. Mind you, he did look a little miserable with his fat gut.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 26, 2012)

honda237 said:


> Agreed, even if they are docile, still don't trust them, last year i gave 20-30 almost adult cherries to my girlfriend to add to the tank, and by the next day the betta probably ate and killed more than half of them. Mind you, he did look a little miserable with his fat gut.


LOL Well, I learned tonight that my betta doesn't do well with tank mates. I bought a mystery snail tonight and within 20 minutes he attacked it. He tried to eat it about 3 times in an hour so I had to move the snail to a spare tank. I don't think I will try any other tank mates. I think he'll try to eat anything that moves. lol 
But I do spend time on the bettafish.com forums and there are a number of people who have successfully kept ghost shrimp and/or snails with betta fish. But yes, it seems to depend on the personality of the fish.


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## TwoTacoCombo (Apr 13, 2012)

I put two yellow neos in our 5 gallon betta palace this weekend. The fish didn't even notice them going in. I saw him checking one out once, and that was the end of it. This betta is not at all agressive, and never flares his fins. He's more like a puppy, and will swim over to greet whoever comes near. So yeah, it's entirely possible to house shrimp with bettas, but it's more the luck of the draw with betta personalities..


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## abc (May 18, 2004)

my betta only attacked red, orange colors. he is a orange-red betta. he attacked nerite tiger shrimp. but he leaves the ghost shrimp alone and pond snails. I think the red color triggers the aggression so I was thinking of the blue velvets until I read that the juvies are sometimes red... bummer. I'm going to have to try and find a different kind of shrimp


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## amygirl11 (May 20, 2012)

My Betta was fine with ghost shrimp. Not so good with Fire Reds though.


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## shrimpcrazy00 (Jan 15, 2014)

My betta eats anything that is in his tank... I put 12 pond snails in there and by the next day they was gone... I only found 3-4 partial shells from the snails. I think my betta is the devil...


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