discus with shrimp

[abitoheaven]

Will discus eat my ghost shrimp if I put them in planted tank?

Thanks!

[Tazalanche]

They will definitely try. It took a dozen 4.5"-6" discus roughly 3 months to go through over 300 ghost shrimp in our planted 135 & about 2 months to find any stragglers.

My post from May 2013:

+1
I bought 300 ghost shrimp in February & started moving some of them, 50 at a time, into our 135 discus tank in March because our most fertile female kills our cardinals if there are no shrimp in the tank. We're down to less than a dozen shrimp & trying to decide on buying more shrimp or moving the female & her mate to a separate tank for breeding.

[ericatdallas]

My discus won't eat my red cherry shrimp in a BB tank. It's weird... sometimes they'll chase them and they will disappear but they'll last weeks.

They breed fast too..so consider RCS in a planted tank and they might breed fast enough to not die off completely from being eaten.

[abitoheaven]

Will blue rams eat ghost shrimp as well?

[Elliots]

Eric, how many RCS did you start with?

[tonytheboss1]

As soon as they are large enough or the shrimp are small enough they will begin to disappear. Heavily planted (like my first setup) will give them cover for a minute but Discus are foragers, they will seek them out. yum yum lol I usually get 20 or so & toss them in. What the Discus don't find the Raphael's will. "T"

[RichMark]

My discus (4 inch's) left the ghost shrimp I dropped in (around 6 in a 75) and they seem to have evaded my striped Raphael cat so far (going on day 4), how ever I don't have high hopes as the discus's favourite food is frozen mysid shrimp. Have a planted tank so there is plenty of spots to hid but two seem to love the front of the glass.

[jmf3460]

anamo shrimp get much bigger than ghost shrimp, and are by far the best cleaning crew I have ever owned, from algae (all types except BGA) to leftover food, to dead plant matter, to algae crisps. I currently have about 10 anamo in a tank full of fish (non discus though) and they haven't been eaten and I am growing out another 26 in a crayfish tank to put in with adult festivum cichlids once they get over 1.25". plus they cannot reduce in fresh water so they will not overpopulate your tank.

[cute_lil_fiend]

I had my juvie discus in a community tank at first with cherries and amano. Cherries were decimated, but amano were peachy, so I would recommend amano or some other shrimp of similar size if you really want shrimp.

[jmf3460]

I had my juvie discus in a community tank at first with cherries and amano. Cherries were decimated, but amano were peachy, so I would recommend amano or some other shrimp of similar size if you really want shrimp.

+1 for amano/anamo

[ashtricks]

I have 4.5"+ discus in a 75, lightly planted setup. I put 5 Amanos, and 10 RCS in. I did not expect any to survive. But today I have LOTS of juvie + grown up shrimps (some look like RCS juvies, some like Amano) roaming around in the open, not hiding!. I have so many that I think RCS and amanos are cross breeding. Is it possible?
My discus haven't developed a taste for these shrimp yet. I do feed them mysis once a while.
I am thinking of adding a betta hoping to control their population a bit.

[RichMark]

Red cherry shrimp and amano can not cross, in fact amano shrimp need brackish water for there eggs to survive (and then fresh after, kind of a pain to breed). Perhaps your red cherry shrimp had some other colours in there genetics? One of my LFS sells red cherry shrimp and every few shipments they get a bunch of blue or brown coloured ones (not as striking as the red though).

[ashtricks]

Whatever the juvies are, sure don't look like RCS. They have distinct pattern on their sides that the amanos have, and they are all transparent. And some have distinct RCS pattern and they get reddish at a very small size. I don't care whatever they are they add a new interesting dynamic to my tank
I got these from uncle neds in mass and they said a few months back they did have a bunch of amanos that did not need brakish water to breed... who knows!

Red cherry shrimp and amano can not cross, in fact amano shrimp need brackish water for there eggs to survive (and then fresh after, kind of a pain to breed). Perhaps your red cherry shrimp had some other colours in there genetics? One of my LFS sells red cherry shrimp and every few shipments they get a bunch of blue or brown coloured ones (not as striking as the red though).

[jmf3460]

FMHE, red cherry shrimp juvies do not develop their coloring until much past the juvie age age. they all start out somewhat clear with some brown markings.