Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi all, has anyone seen this before and have any suggestions as to how to stop it? My male Asian Filter Shrimp keeps attacking my African Filter Shrimp who is a little smaller than he is. The Asian one uses his large powerful front legs to trample and attack the African one. The African one is rather timid and normally won't retaliate but just move away or hide, only to be followed and actively attacked again and again. He often hides in the back of the treasure chest ornament which the Asian shrimp can't get into, so the Asian one turns of his side so he can get his legs into the hole and attack further.

The African shrimp will sometimes get fed up and attack back, I think he's more powerful, he managed to turn the Asian shrimp upside down, then dug his tail into the ground for more leverage and pinned down the Asian shrimps front legs and pushed him into the gravel head first.

I assume the Asian shrimp sees the African shrimp as a rival male, despite the fact he's a different colour, size and species?

The African shrimp has been getting red blotches on the inner part of his front legs which I assume are something to do with the fighting. However neither shrimp seem hurt and start to feed quite happily when they go their separate ways, the red marks fade after a week for so.

Is there anything I can do to stop these two killing each other? I'm thinking the best bet is extra hiding places?

i have never kept them together but i have kept them in tanks with dwarf shrimp before on seperate occations and never seen agresson from either i did notice that the african filter shrimp seems to be alot more timid and shy than the asian one (if we are on about the same species as some places name things acording to the first thing that comes into thair mind) but neither were aggressive and let the dwarf shrimp crawl all over them and get free rides like a parrot on a pirates shoulder. i know that if they do try and defend themself (read up on it ages ago) that they can get thair fans and use them like spears (seen it once when a fish hastled my african one) but diddn't seem to do any damage what so ever. if you have another fish tank (without cichlids in. , or other larger or aggressive fish in) then try and separate them as one may become stressed and become reclusive and maby die due to stress. the african male will grow larger than the asian male acording to what i read about 17-20 cm for male acording to some places may be wrong, so when they are fully grown the african one will be bigger and the fighting should stop or roles reverced.But like i said i have never kept them together at the same time. maby someone else may be able to help you more. i have only kept the both of them once at seperate times and am not as experienced as others are with filter shrimp and shrimp in general as alot of people on the forums. try using a search don't know if it will help tho because i never heard of filter shrimp or dwarf shrimp being agressive.Hope you can fix the problem but i would say if you have another tank try separating them or try making lots of hideing spots shrimp and alot of fish love little caves and things to hide in, if the "fighting" carrys on give one of them to a friend or shop if one seems to be getting hurt and stressed then it may be for the best. i would wait untill someone replys to the question(as they may have alot better advice) or try the search feture but the extra hiding places could help.

good luck with your problem and merry christmas and a happy new year
stephen.

I had 3 asian (wood) shrimp and 2 african (Vampire) shimp in the same tank. I never saw them fight but the africans were always under the wood fanning as the asians were all over the place and fanning

I have seen flower shrimp take a dominant role over african shrimp. I usually keep three to six of each in the same tank at work. I have yet to observe them actually fighting, but the african shrimp are usually hiding/fanning under the plants, whereas the flowers are very busy all over the tank.