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Stiphodons, Hillstream Loaches, and Ember Tetras with Dwarf Shrimp


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Hi there, I'm new to the forum but I've been following the YouTube for a while now.

Recently I set up a Walstad style bowl with red cherry shrimp and they have recently bred. It's set me on a shrimp kick and made me want to turn my 29G into a shrimp tank. At the moment I have just a community with some 3 Vampire shrimp and 4 amanos, with ember tetras, cardinal tetras, platies, corys, stiphodon gobies and hillstream loaches. 

 

I've had my community tank set up for a few years now and would like to change it up a bit. However, I really would like to keep my hillstream loaches, stiphodon gobies and ember tetras. From what I've heard, hillstream loaches are pretty safe. I'm not worried about getting a 100% shrimplet survival rate at all, but shrimp are super expensive over here (like £6 a pop ≈ $8.32) and I would be really interested in seeing some babies make it. Believe it or not I used to have 6 dwarf chain loaches with adult cherries, and they never bothered them, then when I pulled out a huge clump of Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, there were probably about 10 juvenile cherries that had made it!

 

So, what's your opinion on Stiphodon Gobies, Hillstream Loaches, and Ember Tetras with dwarf shrimp? My tank is always full of plants and there will be loads of cover, my gobies and loaches stick to surfing on the back wall and scouring rocks for biofilm, I've never seen them actually venture into the masses of plants so I think they'd be plenty of cover for the baby shrimp. Right now they don't even acknowledge the amanos's existence so I'm sure they'd leave the adult cherries alone.

 

Thanks in advance!

Jake

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While I have no personal experience with Stiphodon gobies,I do have ember tetras, hill stream loaches and Crystal shrimp in a heavily planted 29 gallon which also includes cherry barbs. My shrimp population is growing and doing quite well.. From what little I have read about Stiphodon  gobies I think it could work. I would if possible keep some of my shrimp in a separate aquarium just in cases until you see how it goes, considering the price. In fact my 29 didn’t start out with the Crystal shrimp I added some of my overflow that I had from a planted 10 gallon dedicated to just the shrimp.

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11 minutes ago, Dkshadowwolf said:

While I have no personal experience with Stiphodon gobies,I do have ember tetras, hill stream loaches and Crystal shrimp in a heavily planted 29 gallon which also includes cherry barbs. My shrimp population is growing and doing quite well.. From what little I have read about Stiphodon  gobies I think it could work. I would if possible keep some of my shrimp in a separate aquarium just in cases until you see how it goes, considering the price. In fact my 29 didn’t start out with the Crystal shrimp I added some of my overflow that I had from a planted 10 gallon dedicated to just the shrimp.

Thanks for the reply:

I think I'll give it a go then, I know Cory is a firm believer in the shrimp and fish with loads of plants set up, and judging by a lot of his videos, he's doing quite well. I've seen him breed them with livebearers, which have bigger mouths than ember tetras.

I think as long as I have enough plants, I should be ok. I plan on having a rock pile covered in moss like Lucas Bretz and a massive mass of limnophila sessiflora. 

 

Thanks again for the reply.

Jake

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Having moss balls seems to help keep shrimplet predation down. Subwassertang or flame moss is a favorite among shrimp hoarders as they provide dense coverage and shelter. I believe those are fairly common overseas depending on where in the U.K you hail (assuming based off your £).

I would think ember tetras would be the only issue as both hillstream loaches and stiphodons are grazers. Even then they won't be a huge threat.

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7 hours ago, Lowells Fish Lab said:

I've kept hillstream loaches and stiphodon gobies together with very small shrimp. I never saw anything that made me worry. I have seen stiphodons go after fish fry though. They're surprisingly mean when they want to be.

I've seen my ones go and grab live daphnia out of the water column. Thanks for the reply!

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