# Pencilfish and shrimp?



## Riley (Jan 24, 2006)

Hey,

Well before I get beaten up over this, I did do a search and I really couldnt find much information on the compatibility of pencils and shrimp. I just brought home 12 nice zebra shrimp from my LFS and I saw some pencils that I have wanted for a long time. They were the Coral Red pencils. My buddy who owns the store called me last night and told me they were some of the nicest ones he has seen. So I went in today and sure enough, they were absolutely gorgeous. Then, I saw a very nice tankful of Clown Killies and if the pencils dont work, I am think about starting a colony of the clown killies. Any advice on my situation would be great. They are going to be put into my heavily planted 29 gallon tank, lotsa moss and stems. Thanks for your help.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Wasserpest had pencils and cherries in one of his tanks for a few years.

They'll eat baby shrimp for sure, as for others its fish by fish more or less I would say.

Not sure on the killies most likely same since ottos are only 100% shrimp safe fish.

-Andrew


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

Wow, you got the Coral Reds eh? I've been looking around for those for a while now ever since PFK did an article on them. If you breed them, let me know. 
As for compatability, your penciles and shrimp will be fine. The only thing is the babies will probably get eaten. I find my N. Beckfordi will hunt for little critters in my moss and bunchplants. I do find that Pencils are one of the nices fish to keep though. But yeah, i'm actually watching one of my N. Beckfordi's hunting critters right now as I type. They flutter at each little opening and poke their heads into the greenery and just pick at things, so baby shrimp are defs gong to be eaten.


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## ingg (Jan 18, 2007)

Killies, on the other hand, are a definite no. I learned that one the hard way. 

The things have frog's mouths, it is insane. I had a female killie in a tank I'd honestly completely forgotten about (she hid all the time after her mate had gone carpet surfing) and dropped into the tank 6-8 juvenile, but decent sized, cherry shrimp.

I had no idea she could move that fast. She ate all but one, in like 90 seconds. They were about 1/4 to 1/3 her size. She had a belly so fat and full of cherry shrimp she looked like a Krib about to breed, all swollen belly and a pink tinge to it.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I had Dwarf Pencils, they are a bit smaller than beckfordis (and Coral Reds I suppose). The adult shrimps were not in danger of being eaten, and with lots of thick jungle hiding places plenty or little shrimplets survived. 

There are many fish that can coexist with Cherry shrimp, even if they take out a few shrimp babies here and there, enough survive to keep the population going.


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## Riley (Jan 24, 2006)

Well thats what I am hoping for. I am still sitting the fence on which way to go. I loooove the Coral Reds....but they seem like they have an appetite for shrimp. I do have a TON of plants, and as soon as the moss grows in a lil more, I will have quite a bit of moss also. Then again, the killies that I am getting are really really small when full grown. So i dunno. I am going to my LFS on sunday I will decide then. Untill then, if anyone else has any input let me know! Thanks for everyones help!


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## sorab (Aug 21, 2006)

Clown killies are quite good in a shrimp tank not that they cant eat shrimplets, but that they rarely do as they stay right at the top of the tank 95% of the time. They should also breed themselves and they dont eat their own fry much if at all.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

If you have enough plant cover, I think the Coral Reds will be fine. Of course they will nab a few shrimplets, thats natural, but I feel that you'll still be able to have a growing shrimp population.


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