Zebra Danio Vs. Chery Shrimps

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shrimplets
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Zebra Danio Vs. Chery Shrimps

Post by shrimplets »

Hi everyone:

This is my first posting as a registered member.

I have a tank full of cherry shrimps and no fish and I am trying to find some suitable fish to put into my tank.

I am wanting to put zebra danios in the tank but I want to find out if anyone tried it and how it turned out. <- I wouldn't want to wake up the next day and find out that zebra danio had went to town on my shrimps.

I thought about putting in cardinal neons but zebra danio looks better to me.

Any help is appreciated.

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TKD
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Post by TKD »

Hi shrimplets,

Next time please do a search on this topic... there are many threads about it.

Any fish, other then plecos or other sucker mouth fish, will eat baby shrimp.

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Post by shrimplets »

Thanks for the reply TKD:

I searched in the forum before posting this reply.

I understand that pretty much all fish will eat little shrimps. I actually want to know if there is a guideline of big the shrimps will have to be before they are considered food... like a fish-mouth to shrimp ratio or something...

also, I know that fishes like puffers will sometimes kill stuff - like shrimps even when they have no intentions of eating them at the time... will zebra danios kill for fun like the puffers?

I have some plants in the tank and I am trying to populate areas in the tank with plants for shrimplet hideouts, will the shrimplets instinctively hide or will they just walk into the open and get snatched?

I don't mind losing part of my shrimp baby population when they are babies but I do want some babies to grow up. currently I have some 75+ cherries shrimps in 20g tank with no fish other than ottocinclus.

I guess I should've stated my intended question in a little more detail in the first post.

Thanks for at least reading the post.

Shrimplets
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fishcrazee
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Post by fishcrazee »

If you really want fish you can try the boraboras (sp?). They are tiny little rasbora like fish. Cherry shrimp actually get bigger than most of the boraboras. They are really colorful and stay near the top of the tank. They don't eat CRS babies or at least no one has seen them in the act. As with danios, they swim pretty quickly and might make the shrimp nervous. If you want more shrimp it's best to keep them by themselves as fish are known to interfere with their ahem... breeding

EDIT: The species of fish is Boraras HTH :-D
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Post by shrimplets »

thanks for the reply fishcrazee

I am actually wanting to control the breeding somewhat <- though I still want them to be happy.

didn't find any fish listed as borabora did you mean rasbora?

Edit: nvm, I forgot about the last line.
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Post by fishcrazee »

No problem, great to know that I helped someone :-D
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Post by badflash »

If you look up what the boraras eats it says:
Omnivorous. Will take small flake and frozen foods, but live foods (insects, small invertebrates) much preferred.
Baby shrimp are definitely small invertibrates. If you plant to keep shrimp with any species of fish that like live food, count on baby losses and have loads of hiding places for the shrimp.
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Post by flash69x »

If you HAVE to have some kind of a fish in there then I would go with something colorful. Endler's Livebearers would be my pick.
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Re: Zebra Danio Vs. Chery Shrimps

Post by GunmetalBlue »

shrimplets wrote:I am wanting to put zebra danios in the tank but I want to find out if anyone tried it and how it turned out. <- I wouldn't want to wake up the next day and find out that zebra danio had went to town on my shrimps.
Hi Shrimplets, I'm personally in favor of shrimp-only tanks, but since you asked if anyone has tried it - yes, I tried it once. I had one leftover Zebra Danio from before I started keeping shrimp; she was kept in her own tank. However, there was one time that I had to place her in an adult Red Cherries tank for some reason (like I was moving things around or something).

Anyway, long story short, no, she didn't kill nor catch any of the shrimp. However, Zebra Danios are very playful ... so basically, it was a ton of fun for her to chase the shrimp :( . I observed her behaviour for a couple days then finally, I couldn't stand that she was stressing out my shrimp, so I removed her. Another problem I noticed is, Zebras are chowhounds. So even with the lights out, she kept harrassing and trying to eat the wafer food I'd provided for the shrimp. It was a no win situation.

So although Zebra Danios might not necessarily catch and kill an adult shrimp, they'll definitely stress them out, even causing them to try to jump out of the water :? . So I definitely would not recommend it, IMO. Zebras are lively, entertaining fish though; one of my favorites ... just not with shrimp :-D .

-GB
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Post by shrimplets »

Thanks everyone for replying.

I recently started a shrimp only tank that has a few cheries. They reproduce very easily and my tank is now full of cheries.

the problem is, the shrimp occupies the bottom of the tank and I was looking for other lives(for lack of better word) to occupy the middle of the tank. as far as I know there is no shrimp that hangs out in the mid water height.

I thought about dwarf puffers but I read somewhere they are some mean little fish. I also thought about cardinals and neons but my water is very hard and I am not sure if I can bring it down to a stable soft. <- bought some drift wood and getting them ready for the tank.

I had my eyes on the zebra danios because they GLOW a nice red color... mmmm pretty.

thanks GunmetalBlue. I only have 1 tank setup right now. if they turn out not suitable for the tank then I wouldn't know what to do with them.

on a side note, somehow the more they reproduced, the lighter the color becomes... <- the cheries I meant. there is a piece of zucchini at all times in my tank, and the cheries seem pretty happy...

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Post by Shrimp&Snails »

"there is a piece of zucchini at all times in my tank"

Not a good idea.....the zucchini will foul up your water as it breaks down.
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