Fish And Shrimp Together

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Offline Diz1

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Fish and shrimp together
« on: June 22, 2015, 04:46:23 PM »
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I've finally got my 10 Micro Rasbora fish and they're now exploring their new home in my 60 litre shrimpery.
I didn't realise just how tiny they are! They're smaller than the adult shrimp.
At the moment, they're all shoaling together nicely and paying no attention at all to their shrimpy friends. I'll keep an eye out over the next few days, but for those of you who are considering putting some fish in with their shrimp, I'd say that these look like a good option. They're so tiny that I don't think they could even eat a shrimplet! :)

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2015, 07:07:49 PM »
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Funny you should say that. I had 9 Sundadanios in with my shrimps; I assume they didn't eat the baby shrimps as I seem to have quite a few. The pygmy cories didn't make any impact on numbers either. The more recent habrosus cories don't seem to be eating baby cories to judge by the newly hatched ones I still have to rescue from the water change bucket.
I say had Sundadanios because they all died with a few days of each other with no apparent cause. One day they'd be fine, the next dead. So in my QT I currently have crystal shrimp and Boraras urophthalmoides. And I agree, they are smaller than adult cherry shrimps and a lot smaller than the crystals.

What species are your micro rasboras? Mine were sold as mosquito rasboras, which is a common name for B. brigittae but looking at photos on Seriously Fish, mine are definitely urophthalmoides.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2015, 07:44:39 PM »
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Hi Sue,

They were sold as brgittae, but looking at seriously fish, they don't seem as dark red in colour as the pictures there. I'm starting to edge towrads the opinion that they're the same as yours. Is there any definitive way of telling the two species apart.
Also, mine only went into the tank this afternoon, so I won't be feeding them till tomorrow. What are you going to feed yours?

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2015, 12:02:59 PM »
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Going by SF, urophthalmoides have a larger black spot at the base of the tail while brigittae have a much smaller black spot and red on the outer tips of the tail. It also comments that uroph's are often traded as brigittae because the shop can charge more, but mine only cost 85p each, less 10% for buying more than 5.
But I think we'll both have to wait a few weeks as a lot of fish only colour up properly once they've settled in.

I'm currently feeding the QT with finely crushed flakes (New Life Spectrum) and crushed Hikari Shrimp Cuisine. Of course the fish also eat the shrimp food and vice versa. Once they go in their permanent home, crushed sinking pellets, nominally for the cories, will be added to the mix. And I feed the 50 litre with frozen cyclops which the rasboras will be able to eat.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2015, 12:08:14 PM »
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Thanks Sue. Mine will be staying in the shrimpery. I fed them hikari pellets (crushed very small) this morning. I also feed Hikari shrimp cuisine and snowflakes to the shrimp, so i guess they'll have a go at those if they want it. I have sterbai cories in my main tank and I do feed them sinking pellets, but I probably won't put these in the shrimpery. I'll feed the micro rasboras with frozen cyclops when the other tanks get forzen live food. hoepfully that will give them a varied enough diet. They are really nice little fish though, aren't they? :)

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2015, 12:19:36 PM »
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Mine are colouring up nicely. I have 2 brave ones that come to the front of the tank, the others mainly hide behind a plastic plant. I'll have to see if those are braver once they go in the 50 litre. The only downside is that I bought 10 but have no idea how many I still have. I think I've counted 8 at once but the other two could be hiding too well. With crystal shrimps also in the QT (same shop, tank in same rank) There wouldn't be much left to find if any have died.
Mine are orange rather than red. That could be because they are stressed or because they are indeed urophthalmoides.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2015, 12:55:37 PM »
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Mine are orange as well, so I'm starting to think they're the same as yours. Like you, I started with 10 and only count 7 this morning, but they're so active it's hard to count them!

On another slightly more serious note, I've just seen and removed what i think must be a leech from the shrimpery. This has cured me of any desire to eat lunch today!

Should I be worried about this? Am i about to have an explosion of fish/shrimp eating nasties in my tank?

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2015, 01:11:05 PM »
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Not having had leeches myself, I get the impression that they come in with plants or live food (as in alive not frozen).
I have found a reference saying that there are parasitic ones and harmless detritivores. It says the parasitic ones tend to be banded with green/yellow bars and the harmless types are brownish.

I would keep an eye out for them and remove any you see. The treatments, which range from salt to pretty nasty chemicals, won't do anything nice to the shrimps.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2015, 01:15:42 PM »
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Thanks Sue, This was definitely brownish and not banded.
Hopefully, It's a 'do-more-good-than-harm' type, then. I'll keep any eye out for any others.
I'm a big fan of live and let live for harmless creatures, but it didn't half make my stomach churn!

I've not fed that tank any live or frozen live food, so I guess it must've been the plants it came in on :yikes:

Offline Richard W

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2015, 05:29:34 AM »
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There are numerous types of leech and a simple colour comparison is meaningless. All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus. Some are fast swimming and may prey on fish and other swimming creatures, while others are much slower and eat things such as snails. Leeches move in a looping motion, they don't slide along, they have a sucker at each end and stretch out, attach the head sucker, then pull up the body, attach the rear sucker and so on. If yours don't move like that they're not leeches.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2015, 07:05:35 AM »
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Oh no! Just when I'd convinced myself not to worry too much! :yikes:

This one was definitley a leech. It moved exactly as you describe. It was pinkish brown and it was smooth, not banded. In this tank I only have shrimp, micro rasbora (10) and a few pond snails, which I was starting to think i should do something about. The shrimp appear to be thriving, and I have many babies zooming around the tank.

Is there any way of getting rid of the leeches without using chemicals that might harm the shrimp and fish?

Offline Sanjo

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2015, 08:48:30 AM »
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Ughhh. Shudders. Squash 'em ?
I had one tiny detritus worm the other day in the shrimp tank . Freaked me out. Haven't seen any more, even when I stirred up the substrate yesterday when doing a deep clean

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2015, 09:43:23 AM »
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thanks Sanjo, the one I saw is gone, and I'll keep an eye out for any more. I'm not good with parasites (even when I was nursing, I wasn't good with them), just the thought of them does something horrible to my insides. It's enough to put me off fish keeping altogether! :yikes:

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2015, 02:08:02 PM »
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There are numerous types of leech and a simple colour comparison is meaningless. All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus.
I did wonder about that but not being an expert in leeches I wasn't sure. Would the 'brown detritus eaters' be some different type of creature?
It's a long time since I studied zoology (44 years!) and can't remember too much about 'worms' be they annelids, nematodes or whatever  :-[

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2015, 03:36:39 PM »
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The thing that makes me think it was a leech was the way it moved. As Richard W said, 'Leeches move in a looping motion, they don't slide along, they have a sucker at each end and stretch out, attach the head sucker, then pull up the body, attach the rear sucker and so on.'

I've been practically glued to the tank all day, and I haven't seen anything else. Some sites seem to recommend leaving a prawn in overnight, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea in a 60 litres tank (water pollution, increase in ammonia, etc.), and I'm not sure how you'd contain the leeches so that you could remove them from the tank the next morning.

Offline Sue

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #15 on: June 24, 2015, 04:46:25 PM »
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Maybe use a variation of the snail trap? Put the shrimp/prawn in a jar with a lid, and punch holes in the lid from the outside so that the jagged bits point inwards. If any leeches did find their way inside it would make it easier to remove them.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #16 on: June 24, 2015, 04:58:55 PM »
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that's a great idea. I'm definitely going  to try that! :)

Offline SteveS

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2015, 09:37:19 AM »
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All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus.
Pedants hat firmly on: Some leeches are carnivorous; This does not exclude them from eating detritus or scavenging. Most leeches are haematophagous; They eat blood. Generally, this precludes them from eating detritus.

A Selection of Fish in my Fish Community Creator Tanks
Angelfish (1) - Panda Cory (10) - Harlequin Rasbora (10) - Otocinclus (10) - Japonica Shrimp (10) - Honey Gourami (10) - Galaxy Rasbora (10) -
Note: The user may not necessarily own these fish, these are tanks that they may be building or researching for stocking purposes


Offline Richard W

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2015, 08:03:56 PM »
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It depends what you mean by detritus. Leeches are definitely not vegetarian, they will only eat animal matter.  Each species of leech generally specialises in something, my favourite British species is Theromyzon tessulatum which basically gets into the noses of waterfowl and sucks their blood there, very interesting way of life. A few species will sometimes be attracted to carrion, but they generally prey on living things, either sucking their blood or eating them. The common British ones generally feed on snails or small crustaceans etc., the latter would probably be a threat to small shrimp. Of course, any imported on plants would be tropical, but unless they can swim they are hardly likely to be a threat to fish.

Offline Diz1

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Re: Fish and shrimp together
« Reply #19 on: June 26, 2015, 07:53:11 AM »
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Ugh!!  :sick:
How you can find these things interesting or have a favourite type is totally incomprehensible to me! :)
The good news is that I've not see any more. I'm going to try a snail trap as Sue suggested sometime this weekend and will post the results. If there's anything more disgusting in there, I'm giving up on the whole fish keeping thing. There's only so much my stomach can tolerate!

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