Discus and algae eating shrimp?

[Gary Coleman]

Hello all, just wanted to ask a question regarding freshwater shrimp. I'm setting up a 90 gallon planted discus tank and would like to add a few algae eating shrimp (probably Amano's). Do any of you have any experience with shrimp? I'd rather the shrimp not turn out to be 3$ snacks. I'll be ordering the discus online (discus fantasy maybe?) so I imagaine they will be juveniles at first.Any comments would be welcome, thx.

[Russ]

Hi Gary,
I asked the same question a while ago and was told that the discus would most likely eat the shrimp.

Russ

[Wahter]

Gary,

I've had good luck keeping the 'amano' algae eating shrimp (caridina japonica) with my discus; I do however provide them with lots of hiding places (they like to crawl around the low lying anubias nana plants and other places). The discus haven't hunted them down and the 84ºF temperature doesn't seem to affect the shrimp negatively. If you've got a lot of green hair algae, it usually requires that you have one shrimp per 2 gallons of water minimum, so if you're setting up a 90 gallon tank, that can be kind of pricey for 45 of the little buggers. The only problems I've had is that sometimes the shrimp crawl out of the tank and across the floor, then dry up & die! When I first got them, they would die after a few days - so I knew something was wrong. I've found that adding the Tetra Cichlid vitale vitamins seems to help the shrimps stay alive in the tank (no crawl outs) and I've had the shrimps for at least three years now.

Good luck,


Walter

[Anonapersona]

I had 3 amanos in the tank with wood and anubias, added 6 older juvenile discus. I siphoned out one dead shrimp and I only see one alive now. I think the shrimp got nipped. They were smallish, I need to try to locate bigger ones.

[walk23]

I have 2 left over ghost shrimp from an earlier feeding that the Discus do not bother now. :angel:
Kevin