Rice fish and cherry shrimp

[Siett88]

Does anyone do a combo Rice fish/ cherry shrimp combo tank? I have gold rice fish wintering in a 20 gallon that spent the summer outside (will go back outside next summer). I heard cherrys can summer outside too, and though it would be cool to have both. Pictured is current setup.

[Siett88]

I realize I'd lose a few shrimplets, but the rice fish's mouths seem too small to eat anything larger than that.

[Daniel]

I have rice fish and cherry shrimp outside now. I see the rice fish daily, but almost never see the cherry shrimp. I plan to let both stay outside all winter.

My cherry shrimp overwinter for me here in North Carolina even though on the coldest days there is ice on the pond.

[Siett88]

I'm in Wisconsin, so thats not an option for me, lol. I realize you barely see them, but do you know if the shrimp are breeding well with the rice fish? They don't seem like they'd actively hunt them, but, hey, a meals a meal.

[Daniel]

I don't know how well the shrimp are breeding, but guess is that they are. The reason I say that is I had cherry shrimp in with angelfish and the angelfish ate the cherry shrimp all the time, but there were enough places for the cherry shrimp to hide so that over time the cherry shrimp population increased quite a bit.

[Aubrey]

I have rice fish and cherry shrimp in the same tank. I wouldn't say that the rice fish are predators, they hardly even care when I feed pellets and are indifferent to everything else living in the tank. I'm not saying they wouldn't eat a shrimplet, but I don't think they would seek them out. I haven't seen much growth in the shrimp population though. I think it's like Cory has mentioned where you will have one species boom and the other bust. Since the rice fish spawn pretty much daily, I think it's hard for the shrimp to get a hold on the resources that are available. It used to be the other way around. I had a huge colony of shrimp and would only ever see 3-5 rice fish fry a month. The shrimp were probably eating their eggs because I doubt every single one was getting food.

Although I have to add that my colony of shrimp collapsed due to an outbreak of disease(it went from ~300 to ~20 in two weeks) and the ones that survived didn't breed for about 8 months which allowed the rice fish population to grow. So I'm unsure if the disease or medication somehow made my shrimp less amorous/fertile or if it is the presence of the rice fish.

 

[Siett88]

Ah, I never even thought about the shrimp predating on eggs! I haven't really seen much from the fish in the 2ish months since I brought them in, but the 10ish fry are growing well. Think I might try it, flip aquatics is having a sale, worst case scenario i have a gorgeous clean up crew!

[Aubrey]

At the time it was several hundred shrimp vs 4 female rice fish in a 12 gallon.

The shrimp eventually ate the bottom half of that sweet potato in the upper right corner.

Literally shrimp everywhere. I wouldn't worry about the shrimp eating eggs that much unless your populations are completely lop sided.

[Siett88]

Holy moly, shrimp substrate!

[Tedrock]

I am no expert but here is an idea. Shrimp may be a good thing. They will eat the non viable eggs - the fugus eggs or damaged ones.  When I get a large enough population of Rice fish I will introduce them to my shrimp tanks and see what happens.  The little cleaners might be a good thing, we shall see.