# what shrimp or other invertebrate can I put with bolivian rams



## jtilley (Mar 18, 2013)

The title says it all. The rams will hopefully breed at some point so I DON'T want something that will target fry or eggs. Maybe colorful? Must be pretty hard to kill, hardy. I was thinking maybe a cool snail... tried ghost shrimp in my community tank and they gradually disappeared so I had a bad shrimp experience. I mostly want it to eat algae. It MUST NOT eat my plants that are doing well. So if anything fits this let me know.


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

Amanos are your shrimp of choice I'd say.


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## jtilley (Mar 18, 2013)

Ill look into them any other suggestions?


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

The majority of snails would do well--malaysian trumpet, mystery, nerite, rams horns, etc. Nerites are pretty much my favorite for cleaning the glass and come in a pretty good variety of types, some incredibly colorful. 

I keep cherry shrimp with a German Blue Ram (or possibly vice versa--it's a community tank) but it's with the full knowledge that I'll be restocking the occasional adult as very very few shrimplets will make it to adulthood and, as their numbers fall, adults will increasingly be taken. I also have ghost shrimp in the same tank--but it's a toss up whether any particular fish at any particular time will figure out that tearing them apart works just as well as gobbling them down whole.


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## frankiefire702 (Dec 18, 2013)

I've kept amanos successfully with my bolivians. You may want to look into dwarf orange mexican crayfish also. They haven't harmed any fish or plants and look cool in the tank.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

Get the color of shrimp to match your substrate. If you have brown substrate, get chocolate cherries, etc. The camouflage helps quite a bit in the fish not seeing them.


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## jtilley (Mar 18, 2013)

What do snails do? My lfs usually has some kind or another in stock all the time.I don't know why but I just find snails less creepy than shrimp. So I'm leaning towards snails. If I get a big snail won't it be pretty much indestructible if it hides in its shell as far as fish messing with it?


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

Depends on the fish. Antennae get nipped off, but if the fish is only opportunistic, it shouldn't be too bad depending on your params. Type of snail depends on temp, etc.

As for the type of fish, as long as you don't have a snail eater (puffer, etc) they should be fine together.

How big are the fish? What are you looking at the snail to do? That will depend on the type of snail as well.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

"I mostly want it to eat algae. It MUST NOT eat my plants that are doing well."

I just noticed this in the description.

Nerites and ramshorns are great snails that eat algae. Amano shrimp, and Red Claw Shrimp will also eat some types of algae (Although red claw shrimp may be opportunistic with your fish as well.) Mystery snails, pond snails, bladder snails, etc won't really touch it. Shrimp in general won't touch algae for the most part either. They eat the food the algae produces.


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## jtilley (Mar 18, 2013)

I'm looking to exchange the fish I have now for a few Bolivian rams. It sounds like nerite and ramshorn are the way to go, thanks! Do you think this will work out ok?


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## Mourya dev (Nov 16, 2021)

bostoneric said:


> Amanos are your shrimp of choice I'd say.


Can we keep Bolivians with amanos?? I have a 300litre full planted setup.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Mourya dev said:


> Can we keep Bolivians with amanos?? I have a 300litre full planted setup.


It's recommended to keep larger shrimp with more peaceful fish. There are bamboo shrimp and vampire shrimp... but if the fish are known nippers of fins, then they aren't a good choice.

Amanos tend to generally be pretty hardy and may be big enough that rams would leave them alone.


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