# Betta and Amano Shrimp



## efunk (Aug 6, 2017)

I've seen some mixed reviews on this topic, and I wondered if anyone currently has the two and would be willing to share their experiences. Alternatively if you HAD them together and no longer do. 

My aquarium is a 5g low-tech medium planted. I have three assassin snails right now, and that's all. I want to get a female betta fish as my centerpiece, and none else. But then I thought about getting some Amano Shrimp. I don't have much algae to speak of at the moment, but I'm still mid-cycle. The only thing I'm worried about is getting algae on my anubias and having to constantly scrub it off. I'm not getting the Amano's to combat any future algae issues, but as something interesting to watch and to /help/ with the algae.

Only a lot of people say that a betta will bite their little legs off and eat them. I just wondered if anyone could share their experiences with me.


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## sfsamm (Apr 3, 2017)

It sincerely depends on the personality of the betta, both females and males can be aggressive. I have two male bettas one cannot even have a nerite snail with him the other doesn't have a care about what I put in his tank and even spent a while in the platy tank and didn't pig on the fry. 

Amano are a good one to try as they are not flashy or brightly colored, they get larger and hence don't look like food. Ghost shrimp are also often used, although they remain smaller they are again not brightly colored.  

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## efunk (Aug 6, 2017)

That's what I've heard. There is absolutely no difference in the aggression between male/female bettas towards invertibrates? I had also looked at Ghost Shrimp, but they don't get as big as the Amanos, which is why I was leaning towards them. 

I also wanted to get the shrimp before the betta, but if the amanos are going to be lunch I'd rather get the ghosts because they're cheaper over here. I'll remove the shrimp if I see any sort of serious issues, of course. But I can't be home all day.


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## grassrootsLABS (Oct 12, 2016)

I had ghost shrimp attack my male betta. My male betta currently lives with 3 amano | 7 chili rasbora | 4 pygmy Cory. He does great with all of them in a 10g. Have another male betta in a 20g with a bunch of smaller fish, had one amano in with them and recently found the amano eaten. 

If your amano have plenty of plant cover then it shouldn't be a problem. I find my CPD as a pack tend to pick on my shrimp way more than a betta does. Also if you can get the amano as big as possible and you shouldn't have a problem. My 3 are very large. 

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I tried keeping amano shrimp with one of my bettas males-he killed them both within a day.. Also killed and guarded a ghost shrimp corpse when I tried those. I'll ntoe this was a very territorial flare happy male. I was able to keep cherry shrimp with my most passive betta male (never flared in his life time).
It depends on the bettas personality/tolerance to other tank mates as well as tank (size and density of planting). Even if a betta doesn't kill amano, the shrimp may jump the tank if water quality isn't prefect, there's not enough food, or they feel threatened (from betta investigating them).


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## Jack's Aquatics (Aug 1, 2017)

You could get a couple ghost shrimp and test any betta you get. With their low cost and ghost shrimp being used as feeders, its probably one of the best ways to test the aggression of any betta you get. Though at the end of the day you will have to be prepared for your betta to not get along with shrimp or other tank mates. Could maybe try holding two females next to each other or visit a LFS that has them closer together and see if they have aggressive behaviors. All in all its still a gamble.


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## distortionist (Aug 16, 2017)

I have more than 30 shrimp in my 5 gallon betta tank. Betta sometimes chases them around but I never see him attack or kill one and its rare that he even pays any attention to them. If one is close to him he will just look at it and the shrimp will probe him with its whiskers and he just goes somewhere else when he gets bored. I found 1 injured shrimp once and it died but I think it is more likely he got jammed in the filter grate. My tank now has an army of baby shrimps and lots of pregnant shrimps. I have no doubt he ate a few of those but I never seen it happen. As long as you have a somewhat easy going betta and lots of plants I think you will be fine. If your betta is aggressive he will probably kill them or stress them to death.


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