# White Cloud Minnows and Cherry Shrimp?



## Adri.

I just stripped my 20 gallon tank and redid it. It currently houses a colony of 50 or so medium quality Cherry Shrimp, but I just ordered 10 Painted Fire Reds so will be culling all but the best RCS and starting over there, too. It's going to be a nice tank with some bright, good quality PFR's. 

I love White Cloud Minnows and was debating getting a small school of them, maybe 10, to keep with the shrimp. I've heard White Cloud Minnows do well with shrimp and won't eat them - can anyone verify this? Have you or anyone you know kept White Clouds with dwarf shrimp, and did it work or did the fish try to eat the shrimp?


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## mosspearl

I have white cloud minnows, but not with my shrimp. I will tell you they actively hunt and eat my medium sized ramshorn snails, so I certainly wouldn't trust them with my shrimp. It's up to you, of course, but if I had just ordered some especially nice shrimp, I wouldn't want to put them at risk.


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## NoGo

Some minnows would eat shrimplets if they're small enough to fit in their mouth. The only time I saw a shrimplet got eaten is when it ran into the minnow. I'd say it's ok to have both minnows and shirmplets in the same tank unless you have expensive shrimp.


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## roadmaster

I think the trick is making sure you have enough shrimp to make up for the tiny shrimplet's (babies) that most all fishes will eat.
Maybe set up small tank for just shrimp.?
I have kept the Mountain minnow's with shrimp (cherry) and seldom seen baby shrimp, but I had enough in small tank to replenish those lost through predation.
Now I have so many shrimp,,that the tetra's,catfish,could not eat them all if they tried.
I view the baby shrimp as live food supplement for the fishes, and keep a large active colony of shrimp in another tank.
Lot's of plant's,wood,rock,would provide baby shrimp with places to hide from predator's.


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## somewhatshocked

This:



NoGo said:


> I'd say it's ok to have both minnows and shirmplets in the same tank unless you have expensive shrimp.


And give your shrimp tons of hiding places, lots of moss and make sure the fish are fed well. That'll help with the survival of her invertebrate population.

I've found White Clouds loving playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with all kinds of shrimp even when they hide. But you can keep them together if you work at it a bit.


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## NoGo

Interesting. How young is your minnow? My minnows don't eat a lot and they don't bother the shrimps. I love seeing the shrimps flying in the air all over the place like monkey.


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## Adri.

Interesting hearing different experiences. I think it would be best that I wait until the population has grown to more than 10 before introducing White Clouds.


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## somewhatshocked

The only real shrimp-safe fish is the Otocinclus. 

If it can fit in the mouth of a fish, consider it a meal, generally speaking. But you can definitely keep shrimp with fish if you have a sizable population of shrimp.


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## urbach

Go with galaxy rasbora, rasbora brigittae, mosquito rasbora and red ruby pencilfish. They confirmed won't eat or bother your shimplets. 

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk


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## somewhatshocked

All of those fish can and will eat shrimplets and can harm adult shrimp.

Feel free to use the search function here on the forum for details.

They _can_ be kept with shrimp, though.



urbach said:


> Go with galaxy rasbora, rasbora brigittae, mosquito rasbora and red ruby pencilfish. They confirmed won't eat or bother your shimplets.


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## Aquatic Delight

just because the shrimp won't fit in the fishes mouth does not mean the shrimp will not get eaten. i have watched white clouds hunt my larger shrimp by ripping legs off until the shrimp can't get away. My Scarlet badis even hunted and killed a amano shrimp. 

rasboras are excellent hunters, i have my spotted rasboras hunt shrimp. like somewhatshocked said, the only truly shrimp safe fish is Otos. i say this two reasons, one i have never heard of, no have i seen an oto eat a shrimp. second if you ask anyone what a shrimp safe fish is everyone can agree on otos.


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## urbach

Don't know about you guys but my 20G house about 15 red ruby pencil, 15 galaxy rasbora aka pearl danio and 10 rasbora brigittae. Started out with only 5 fire red shrimp which now exploded more than 50 shrimps which I lost count. Mine is full planted tank.

No point having oto which main purpose is to clean algae and doesnt move much in aquarium as your cherry shrimps will clean algae too.

Best bet if afraid, don't have any fish.


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## somewhatshocked

There's plenty of reason to keep Otos in a tank beyond cleaning.

Ideally, they're kept in groups of 6+ so you can see them exhibit a bit of a schooling behavior. Otos are tons of fun in sizable groups. Especially in shrimp tanks where they're safe from predation.


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## xmas_one

If your tank is large enough and densely planted, you can keep shrimp with just about any fish. Is it ideal, no, but the shrimp will breed and survive when hiding places are abundant. A while back I started throwing pfr culls into my 90g with angels. Guess what, there's a bunch of ugly pfrs in there now.


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## Aquamom

I have had six White Cloud minnows in a 20-gallon tall with several Red Cherry Shrimp and several Amano Shrimp. Nobody eats anyone. There are also assorted snails. Even the smaller Cherries are too large for the minnows to eat. The larger Cherries and the Amano are almost the same body size as the minnows. I think they would go well together in your tank. I've never had a problem with attacking or predation.


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