# Could I add Shrimp to a Fish Based Tank?



## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

You can definitely add shrimp, but the babies would likely not survive. Adults should be OK, provided there are ample hiding spots.


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## awesometim1 (Oct 31, 2013)

Platies are pretty big so I would be concerned about even juvenile shrimp, but as DarkBlade said, if you have a heavily planted tank, they should survive. 


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## dkraft12 (Sep 26, 2016)

Best bet would be amanos. They're bigger than your average neocaridina even when they're juveniles.


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## Lancz (Apr 28, 2010)

I agree with amano shrimp. They will not breed but are still fun to watch, help with algae and won't be lunch.


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## JustJen (Jun 20, 2011)

Amanos or even one of the filter feeder shrimp (bamboo, vampire) would be a good option. As far as smaller shrimp, if you had the shrimp first and got a healthy population established, it's possible you could keep one going in your tank, but adding a handful of of them into an already established tank with fish as large as platies is pretty much a guarantee that most are going to be snacks.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

Generally, in a tank where there are fish, the shrimp tend to hide more and the population slowly dwindles unless there are a ton of hiding places. You could do amano, bamboo or vampire shrimp as they are fairly large and unlikely to be eaten. Although, people in my local fish club have told me that once fish get a taste, they will literally tear shrimp apart to eat them.


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## blackbeard88 (Apr 19, 2017)

For the filter feeder shrimp, I would need powerhead to produce a current right? And something for them to sit on while they sit in the current?

Also, as JustJen said, do shrimp first and let them get to a good sized population? Or don't risk smaller shrimp and just stick with the bigger ones like Bamboo or Amanos?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

If you start a shrimp tank that's heavily planted, and let them create a colony for at least 3-6 months (longer the better), then introduce fish, you are more likely to have success keeping shrimp and fish together. That said, you'd probably be looking into Neos (cherry shrimp, blue dreams, blue velvets, bloody mary, etc) and you need to know your water parameters to include GH, KH and TDS.

However, once you introduce fish into the colony, you may defeat the entire purpose of having shrimp in the first place because they'll want to hide from the fish...




Amanos can be great! Or they can be bad.... they have a reputation for crawling out of the aquarium and being found several feet away from said aquarium! They are big time food hogs! And some might even be fish aggressive... (aka they'll eat fish they can catch - rarer than ones that crawl out...) However, Lancz is incorrect in that they wont breed... if you have amano shrimp (and this goes for filter feeders, too), they can, and do, breed just fine in freshwater! Without the proper setup however, the larvae would just be fish food... and they are *NOT* an easy shrimp to raise!


As far as filter feeders go, you don't necessarily need a powerhead, just a current in general... and they eat fine powdered foods. If they have a place to sit in the current, even better! You'll either need to purchase powder foods or grind up some algae pellets/wafers so they'll have food to eat. Just mix with tank water and slowly release in front of them.


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## Joe7cri (May 4, 2017)

I wanted to add cherry shrimp to my tank, and my local petco said they were completely compatible with my fish (2 Platies, 1 guppy, 4 neon tetra, 1 assassin snail, 2 Khuli Loaches, and 4 Glo Tetras) so I bought 5 cherry shrimp and 3 ghost shrimp, I watched all the cherry get swallowed up almost immediately (by the Glo and Platies), and the next morning my assassin snail was half way through a ghost shrimp. That was a $23 dinner for my fish (more than I spent on myself that night), but 2 Ghost are still alive in the tank and getting bigger. I now have a 29 for my new cherry shrimp, and after they colonize I plan on adding Neons, Pygmy Corys, and Endlers.


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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

I have an actively breeding and increasing population of red cherries in a moderately planted, 60 gallon tank with lots of hiding spots. They are always out and about in the tank and it is hard not to count at least 50 at any given time (there are probably several 100 now). That being said I have relatively safe fish for the shrimp - 1 male guppy, 6 sterbai cory, 30 forktail blue eye rainbows, 9 harlequin rasboras, 5 amano and 6 ottos. The shrimp were added before the rainbows but after the rest of the fish (started with ~ 30). I even just noticed one of the amanos with eggs last night but they will not survive.

Everyone's experiences will be different. I'm sure someone with the exact same stocking as I have would potentially have zero shrimp remaining. There is also still a chance that my fish will someday realize there are a lot of tasty snacks in the tank. So far so good though.


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## blackbeard88 (Apr 19, 2017)

I may get a couple of bamboo shrimp and see how it goes from there. Could I possibly use my 10 gallon tank for some red cherries and add them to the tank when they're adults?

Bump: Actually, I'll probably just put bamboo shrimp in my 29 gallon and I'll put some red cherry shrimp in my 10 gallon and keep them there.


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