RCS Predation

[Ryan F]

Sigh...

Today I got home and found one of my amanos having a little snack. I thought "where did you get that" it was one of my RCS. I feed well, perhaps even over feed. Is that "normal"? Did I make a mistake mixing amanos and RCS?

I started with 20 RCS and the most I can count regularly is 6-7. They can hide so I expect I have maybe double that. But definitely less than 19. My brief research says RCS are supposed to outbreed the predation...But I haven't seen any that look like males since I added them to the tank. And none are berried as far as I can tell. My amanos are giants. The big females are well over 2"

Do I need to get some more RCS to hopefully get a male or is there something else I can do to prevent predation? 

[Guppysnail]

Amano shrimp are predatory. They have been known to attack smaller fish as well from everything I’ve read and folks I talked to that have them. I chose not to include Amano with my shrimp for that reason. My shrimp stopped breeding when I had Damselfly larvae hatch in my tank. Shrimp will not breed readily when a predator is around because the females molt pre fertilization and are most vulnerable then and when berried from my understanding.  Within 4 days of removing the last Damselfly I had well over a dozen newly berried shrimp. 

[Ryan F]

Well Shoot. I'm not sure what I should do now. I hadn't seen anything about amanos being predatory. Most of the coverage is about their algae eating. I hadn't read anything about their shrimp eating habits. I am not really excited about having purchased $40 in amano food.

[Guppysnail]

If it’s were me...let nature take its course. Enjoy the process and see what you end up with. They probably won’t entirely decimate your rcs. If they do you will have some amazingly healthy Amano if not you will have rcs with good survival skills.  They normally don’t go for healthy fish. A healthy fish they can’t catch easily from everything I have read. 

[Patrick_G]

I’m fairly sure I’ve had Amanos eat some shrimplets, but they leave my adults alone. 

[Ryan F]

I'm trying to think of all the things I can do to turn this course. Most of them involve the first steps of MTS. Maybe I take a trip to petco this weekend. I've been meaning to get a couple more corys and neons...

[Ryan F]

Multi tank syndrome begins. I'm planning on getting a 10g to move the cherries too. I've got an over powered light that and a little sponge filter. So hopefully It'll cycle nearly instantly and start growing algae right away. Once things are stable I'll move as many RCS as I have left and see what happens.

Question. My local area has 3 options for 10G tanks kits. Each has a lid and filter. What're your thoughts on which would make a better shrimp tank?

Marineland. I'm partial to this one, because my current tank is based on a 20G kit.

Aqueon. no opinion.

Tetra. Cheapest option by $30 no heater but have one already.

[Lowells Fish Lab]

On 6/2/2021 at 6:50 PM, Ryan F said:

Do I need to get some more RCS to hopefully get a male or is there something else I can do to prevent predation? 

I haven't seen an amano shrimp hunt and eat an adult cherry shrimp but I have seen one snatch a large brine shrimp out of the water column and eat it. Anything is possible. I still doubt it though, It's more likely that the RCS died for any number of other reasons especially if you got them recently. It's a nice thing about amano shrimp. If something small dies in your tank you might never know it.