Bender Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Dave at AquaGreen has some pretty shrimp, and some practical shrimp at the moment. My last attempt at shrimp were little glass shrimp, and they didn't do so well in with my tiger barbs. So before I got any more I thought I'd best ask a few questions. First up, can you mix different varieties together, or will big ones eat small ones? If I get NT shrimp, do I use a heater? and if I get CRS or other cold water varieties, would they overheat in the summer here? I have a little one foot tank that is currently growing mostly Java moss and anubias nana, nothing flash (more of a holding tank for the plants I rescued from my planted tank attempt) but I find it quite peaceful to look at. I think that shrimp would both be interesting and helpful for cleaning up the algae and mulm out of the moss. So now I am wondering if anyone has successfully kept shrimp and Betta together, and if so what variety/size of shrimp did you keep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 I have heard of people keeping cherries and chameleons together, and apparently they become quite difficult to tell apart except for the while dorsal stripe. Not sure about CRS, but I expect that they'd be fine too as people keep them with cherries. The only one I've heard people concerned about is CRS and CBS, so hopefully someone with more shrimp experience could give you the lowdown on that combo I personally wouldn't try with betta. Having tried ghost shrimp and seen them become a tasty snack, I'd say you'd lose a lot of shrimp that way. I have cherries with microrasboras and even then I think they can take out the babies and juveniles without too much hassle. A betta could easily take out an adult. It could be doable if you had a lot of cover and a high population, but I wouldn't start out that way. I'd also go for a betta that is a bit docile, and preferably a bit small to limit the damage to your adult population You *might* be able to get away with young macro shrimp and bettas, but you should go into it assuming the bettas will be sacrificial. You guys in QLD get M. australiensis as feeder shrimp over summer, so that'd be doable. They are good hunters and they can swim/move forward as opposed to cray who climb and shoot backwards, so as soon as they are big enough to hunt bettas, it would be tricky to prevent it. That being said, they show up as small as glass shrimp, so I'd say you could get several moults out of them before that would be a concern. Maybe check with Dave at Aquagreen and see if M. bullatum would work for you. I believe they max out a bit smaller so that could be an option in a larger tank. If you can find them (and if you can, TELL ME!) riffle shrimp would be an option. They are larger shrimp that filter feed, like bamboo shrimp (which I'm pretty sure we can't get here, pity!) so the bettas couldn't eat them and they would have no interest in hunting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender Posted September 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 This is nearly a year old, but try here for Riffle shrimp. I had never heard of them, but they sound awsome. My girls are currently in a tank that's substrate is just torn up IAL, which I think would make for good filter feeder substrate too, plenty of mulm in there! But these are interesting enough that I think I'd be happy with them on there own anyway. I think I'll just keep my fish and crustacea seperate. Might be nice to have a filter feeder like the Riffle and one of the smaller varieties together. M. bullatum would be nice to own, actually anything that ate snails would be nice to have at this point, those pointy football shaped little rotters are really trying my patience! Perhaps if I let some M. bullatum have first go at all my new plants I'd stop new snails getting in too. How do you think the shrimp would go if I just cycled my rock and driftwood dwelling plants in and out of their tanks for them to clean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter16 Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 (edited) All shrimp can be kept together, and wont cross breed or eat eachother. your betta should leave the adults alone but may eat the youngins. The chameleons will always change colour so wont always be that pretty red. and Darwin algae shrimp do not successfully breed in FW so you will have to repopulate after a while, or move the pregnant females to a brackish environment. (not really worth all the effort) Callatya, are saying the cherries or chameleons have the white stripe ? Have fun, shrimp are great, have a bunch of them next to me now, when the forums are slow they provide some good entertainment. Edited September 10, 2009 by Peter16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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