Shrimp input please

[Ben Ellison]

I currently have a thriving community tank of red cherry shrimp. I have a couple of tanks I suspect shrimp might would be eaten. Do the amano shrimp do a lot better in a tank with say rams and other chiclids? Is it due simply to their increased size they do much better? Should no avoid shrimp all together and just go with a SAE and otto's?

[Brandy]

I have tried red cherry shrimp with rams. I don't know if they are still in there to be honest. I put in just a few and they hid very effectively in the plants. I thought they had all been eaten but now and then I see one, after weeks of not seeing them. I do also have ottos in the tank. The ottos are doing great.

The amanos I also tried. they were not my favorite shrimp. Mostly they camped on the filter intake sponge and were largely worthless as scavengers or algae eaters. I may have just gotten the laziest amanos on the planet or something, I don't know.

[Aubrey]

I would say try the cherries out since you have a thriving colony and could always "make" more, while Amanos might mean having to buy more since they are not easily reproduced. I have an Amano that lives with 5 whiteclouds and I have seen it defend itself by jumping at them when they get too close. Although the Amano is the same size if not bigger than the whiteclouds and I don't think they are trying to eat it or could eat it. Any time I've tried cherries with an aggressive\curious fish, like a betta, the cherries just hid. In my experience shrimp don't do much in the way of getting rid of algae, maybe they help prevent some, so you might have a better experience with the SAE or ottos. The only cichlid I have ever kept was a Firemouth, and I used to get him feeder ghost shrimp. So to me shrimp are cichlid snacks.