# Amano Shrimp and Rainbow fish



## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Finally my LFS has received a shipment of Amano Shrimp. I have all but given up hope. The problem is most of my Rainbows are now mid sized and I was wondering the shrimp are OK with the Rainbows. Anyone have this combination? 
I have 
New Guinea Rainbowfish
Melanotaenia boesemani 
Salmon-Red Rainbowfish (Glossolepis incisus)
Turquoise rainbow (Melanotaenia lacustris)
Praecox


----------



## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

I have praecox rainbows and multiple kinds of shrimp in my 75 gallon tank. Specifically, I have ghost shrimp, amano shrimp, and african vampire shrimp. It has been my experience that rainbowfish are extremely fast and aggressive feeders, but they seem to completely ignore other "fish" in the tank and stick to the mid levels of the water column. Thus, I believe they could be trusted with any but the smallest shrimp, such as cherries. I have never seen them show an interest in any of the shrimp, nor nip at them or each other. Keep in mind that when first introducing the shrimp it might be a good idea to add them in the corner of the tank and guard them with your hand to make sure the rainbows don't assume they are food, since they will associate you mostly with adding food. This is especially important if the shrimp are juveniles and closer to bite-sized. Once the shrimp have been added, I would feed the rainbows on the other side of the tank to distract them from the shriimp. I am pretty sure that after this they will get busy ignoring the shrimp right away.
-Aphyosemion


----------



## Vinlo (Mar 29, 2003)

I have similar Rainbows with cherry shrimp (considerably smaller than amanos) and amanos. I have had no problems, I started with 6 cherries and I have more than I can count now, and from what I can tell I see amanos every now and then - they get pretty large, so I think they are ok now. Much like you, I thought all the shrimp were gonners, but that was not the case. The shrimp are just really good at hiding I guess. My tank is heavily planted though.


----------



## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Wow, I am a little surprised that they wouldn't chow down on those tender, juicy, little bite-sized cherries, but only a little. Rainbows are definately good community fish as they show little concern for anything other than schooling and fish food.
-Aphyosemion


----------



## fishyface (Oct 7, 2004)

i've got bosmani's, red iraian and turqouise blues and the amano's just hide in my java moss, therefore i never even see em unless they get majorly disturbed


----------



## Vinlo (Mar 29, 2003)

I was quite surprised myself. The shrimp are incredibly quick though.. not very accurate as to where they are going.. but extremely quick.


----------



## eums (Sep 16, 2004)

i have some good sized turquoise rainbows (3" +) and my aminos and cherrys (range from 2" to just hatched) are fine. 
buti have a 8" clump of x-mas tree moss and alot of cover in my tank for them.


----------



## aquaphish (Dec 20, 2002)

*Where to get Amano Shrimp???*

I live in O.C. CA and am trying to find a LFS that carries them. I know of one shop that have some very small ones. But I have bought 8 the first time and it seems that all have died. I found several of them dead, so I don't think the rest are just hiding :icon_frow 

I was in a hurry and after a temp aclimation I just dumped them into the tank. I thought that maybe the shrimp died because of pH shock or something similar. When they hit the water they just started to swim all over the place and never really settled down. The next day I found 5 of them dead. So I assumed the others also died.

Then I went back to the same store and bought 6 more. This time I acclimated the temp and then placed the shrimp into a container along with the same water they came in. Then I very slowly added, over a period of several hours, tank water to acclimate them to the pH differance. 

When finally placed them into the tank they seemed very calm and went to the bottom and started to feed and look very healthy and settled. But during the next two days found several dead again.

I feel that the whole shipment that the store has is not really too healthy.

So if anyone can tell me of another store in OC CA that have some shrimp let me know please!!!


----------



## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

In my experience, the hardest part of keeping shrimp is getting them to acclimate properly. The conditions at the LFS are generally poor and if your water conditions such as PH aren't similar to theirs, you compound the shock of the transfer. 
When I acclimate my shrimp, I generally don't worry about mixing the water so much. I just let the temperatures in the bag and the water equalize and add the shrimp. I often ask at the LFS what kind of water they use, just to be sure they aren't using tap water. My LFS use RO water, so their conditions match up with my tanks nicely. If I suspect they are using tap water, I do a PH check on the water in the bag to make sure it isn't off. If it is I take a lot more care to mix the water slowly before adding them to the tank.
-Aphyosemion


----------

