Questions on Keeping Shrimp with Plecos

kakamac · Post by **kakamac** » 24 Jan 2009, 13:58

Good Evening All,

Currently I am setting up a tank measuring 3 foot x 18 inches x 20 inches with a 2000L an hour internal Otto filter to house my colony of L201. The tank will also feature a variety of caves, driftwood and hopefully some plants as well. At present they are in a smaller grow out tank with driftwood and caves. Also occupying the tank are 11 Neon Tetras and a large number of Cherry Shrimp which seem to be thriving and breeding regularly.

Now to the question. I've heard varying opinions on keeping shrimp with breeding plecs. Some have said that shrimp are not a good thing to keep in the tank with a colony of plecs if I want to breed the plecs. Reasons given so far are as follows.

1. The shrimp may disrupt the male in the breeding cave thus making him more likely to kick out the eggs.
2. The shrimp will eat the slime coat off of the young plecs thus killing them or resulting in sick fry.
3. The shrimp will be so active that they will make the L201's too nervous to breed (although my L201's seem ok with them at present).

I would like to hear people's experiences and thoughts on this as if it appears to be ok, my other plecos will also be kept with a colony of Cherry Shrimp or the like. I look forward to everyones replies and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Regards,
Kak

Fantasticfins · Post by **Fantasticfins** » 26 Jan 2009, 05:46

I've kept cherry red shrimp with many different Hypancistrus sps. and mine always eat them. I think bare bottom tanks makes them easy prey. Since cherry red shrimp are so prolific, I consider them a food culture now (I also consider Geophagus altifrons fry a food culture).
-Dale

ashik · Post by **ashik** » 26 Jan 2009, 06:47

I'm with FantasticFins on this one; I keep cherry shrimp with my zebra plec juvies so that they have a constant supply of live foods to prey on, and they are doing fantastically. I now keep cherry shrimp with my hypans and peckolitas just so they have something to chase down and snack on as they please.

kakamac · Post by **kakamac** » 28 Jan 2009, 09:28

Fantasticfins and Ashik thanks for your help. I'll start to add Cherry Shrimp to all of my colonies of plecs. No doubt they'll love the free food and the tanks won't look so drab.

myjohnson · Post by **myjohnson** » 24 Jan 2012, 05:22

Sorry for bumping old thread but I was searching this topic and would like some feed back.

I keep cherry shrimps with my zebras with the intension of making them a food source. However, I never see my zebras going after the baby shrimps.

Can anyone else confirm that zebras eat shrimp and have seen it?

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 24 Jan 2012, 19:51

I have never seen any pleco eat live cherry shrimps in my experience. I have cherry shrimp breeding in most of my breeding tanks. They aren't a food source but are good at eating any scraps of food the plecos don't eat.

Cheers,

Jools

myjohnson · Post by **myjohnson** » 24 Jan 2012, 21:36

+1!

I see the same thing. My zebras act like the shrimps aren't even there. I have never seen a pleco eating a shrimp.

matti2uude · Post by **matti2uude** » 24 Jan 2012, 23:12

I have seen an L14 hunt down a live cherry shrimp and eat it, but that's the only one I've ever seen do it.

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apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 25 Jan 2012, 18:59

I raise Cherry Shrimp or Zebra Shrimp in my Peckoltia compta and Hypancistrus sp L260 breeding tanks and I have never seen any indications that the plecos were eating any shrimp or that the shrimp interfere in any way with breeding or harming the pleco fry.
These plecos will eat any dead shrimp which have not spoiled yet.

I would be more concerned about providing a prefilter over the intake of any power filter so newly hatched shrimp are not lost to the power filter.
One way to do this which will retain a high flow rate of the power filter is to enclose the filter inlet with a filter media bag stuffed with some Eheim Ehfifix which keeps the bag from collapsing and becoming clogged at the filter inlet.

Linus_Cello · Post by **Linus_Cello** » 25 Jan 2012, 21:23

A speaker last year at our local fish club mentioned keeping Peckolita compacta with shrimp. There were no problems with the shrimp being eaten, and they did a great job of cleanup. But apparently the shrimp did too well. The speaker conjectured that having excessive shrimp in the tank, crawling over the P. compacta, did not help in creating a "breeding mood" for his fish. So maybe keep the shrimp population down to a minimal level?

myjohnson · Post by **myjohnson** » 26 Jan 2012, 04:42

If shrimps don't work as live food....

Does anyone here keep a source of live food culture with their plecos?

dw1305 · Post by **dw1305** » 26 Jan 2012, 14:19

Hi all,

Does anyone here keep a source of live food culture with their plecos?

I feed Red Worms Lumbricus rubellus and crushed Red Ramshorn snails, (to my sub-adult Hypancistrus).

They get Grindal worms when they are fry/sub-adult.

cheers Darrel

Linus_Cello · Post by **Linus_Cello** » 26 Jan 2012, 15:55

myjohnson wrote:If shrimps don't work as live food....

Does anyone here keep a source of live food culture with their plecos?

Another speaker at the local fish club mentioned that daphnia are great to culture with plecos as the plecos. I haven't tried this yet. If you do, it was suggested to make sure the bubbles from the filter are large (I'm guessing most regular sponge filters are ok), not small, like from an airstone, as the daphnia may accidentally ingest air bubbles and die.