Is it possible to breed shrimp in a crayfish tank?

[EmmaFish]

So far the crayfish has left the shrimp alone-he couldn't even catch them if he wanted to! My electric blue crayfish is a messy eater, and requires a lot of food; are the tank conditions too poor for breeding easy shrimp such as cherry shrimp? I was wondering if they would eat his poop as well. There are hundreds of ramshorn snails in the tank as well, I was wondering if the shrimp would eat their waste as well?

Edited August 28, 2022 by EmmaFish

[CJs Aquatics]

I’ve never done it, but I don’t see why you couldn’t set up some sort of a symbiotic relationship between the 2. If the tank parameters required are the same, they can share the same tank, you may lose some to the crayfish but I think overall technically it should be able to be done, would be no different then people who are able to breed shrimp with fish who eat shrimp. They may actually help balance the tank by eating his leftover food, helping outcompete snails reducing there population etc. i would say if your LFS has a shrimp that does well in your water, it’s worth a shot…

[Scapexghost]

Itll probably work if theres ton of cover. 

[Shadow_Arbor]

It really depends on the crayfish. If we're talking about procambarus or cherax, there shouldn't be an issue as long as the shrimp have had a chance to breed before adding the crayfish or if you start off with over 20 shrimp. With the cambarellus sometimes we can run into issues. One such issue is the male cambarellus trying to mate with the shrimp killing them. It's still possible, but in my experience usually the shrimp end up disappearing in cambarellus tanks long term. If the aquarium is really large that might work out better.

On 8/28/2022 at 10:25 PM, EmmaFish said:

So far the crayfish has left the shrimp alone-he couldn't even catch them if he wanted to! My electric blue crayfish is a messy eater, and requires a lot of food; are the tank conditions too poor for breeding easy shrimp such as cherry shrimp? I was wondering if they would eat his poop as well. There are hundreds of ramshorn snails in the tank as well, I was wondering if the shrimp would eat their waste as well?

Actually the Cherry shrimp will help keep the tank "clean". I raised hundreds of cherry shrimp with one procambarus clarkii in a 100 liter tank. Every now and then a cherry shrimp got eaten, but for the most part they would sit on the procambarus, and around him, while eating all the leftover food as crayfish are extremely messy eaters. In my experience you can try adding some live plants like moss, apontegetons, Anubis, and maybe some easy Crypts. If they manage to establish they usually don't get murdered by the procambarus.

[Scot]

my belief is the crayfish will continue to hunt the shrimp until it's gotten them all....UNLESS...you can keep the crayfish from every getting hungry.

[The Killer of Fish]

I believe it is possible as long as you start off with enough shrimp or let them get established first and then introduce the crayfish.  I agree with @CJs Aquatics that the shrimp will help control the snail population by getting to leftover food before the snails do.  However, one thing to keep in mind is that all three of your inhabitants depend on calcium for development, so you are going to want to make sure to supplement the calcium in some way.  I grind egg shells with a coffee bean grinder and add them regularly to my shrimp/snail tank.

[Scot]

On 8/29/2022 at 5:02 PM, The Killer of Fish said:

 I grind egg shells with a coffee bean grinder and add them regularly to my shrimp/snail tank.

I drop a chunk of coral into each aquarium. It's enough to provide minerals and calcium to snails and shrimp without having a major affect on water hardness. It's like a slow seep of mineral and the animals take it up as it dissolved. My water is still soft, but my crustaceans and mollusks still have strong shells.