Neocaridinas with Dwarf Gourami or Honey Gourami?

I have these lovely tiny yellow Neocaridina shrimplets now and hope to also breed them in the future in order for the stock to remain. I've been thinking though about maybe adding one male or a pair (male+ female) Dwarf Gourami or Honey Gourami to my 54 litre/12 gallon with 17 green neon tetras and Neocaridinas and Otocinculs and bumblebee snails. Would the Groumai prey on the shrimp? Probably would prey on the newborn shrimp? Thanks for all your experiences and input, the internet says this and that so I'm not sure what to think about it yet. Thanks!

EDIT: Or how about a Betta fish with them?

Helina said:

Probably would prey on the newborn shrimp?

Click to expand...

Also other sized shrimps will be put at danger when they shed. For it takes about a day that a new scale will harden.

Anything that fit in their mouth is potential food, both Betta and gourami. A densely planted tank with lots of hiding spots for the shrimp can increase their chances of survival. There are shrimps hideout or also Cholla wood commercially available, but they really prefer plants over anything else in my tanks.

Hmm, I've read by now several threads, pages and old posts in the internet. Seems many have the experience that HONEY Gourami would be the most peaceful small gourami and most said it to seem to leave the adult shrimps alone. The same can't be said about all Dwarf Gourami or Bettas. Though all seemed to be guessing that Honey Gourami would still eat newborn shrimp like any other fish, so the colony might not grow as fast.
That's what I've learned so far. Any other experiences and tips?

So far noted: plants, mosses, probably just 1 Honey Gourami per 54 litres/12 gallons, regular feeding.

I wish my weeping moss would cover the bottom of half of my tank already, and provide more cover and comfort for the shrimplets. My shrimps are so brave now. I don't want that to change. But I feel like the tank has room for 1 slower swimming spectacle fish especially in the upper porton of the aquarium where the grouramis seem to hang around more often (than tetras).

You could opt for a man-made shrimp hide even if its use is temporary or even a natural one like a coconut. A half coconut shell with big enough holes for shrimp drilled in and small enough not to let fish in could be a good idea. Plus it would be cheap as you could buy a coconut from most stores. I did that for some fish I had in quarantine once. Made a doorway and sanded down the fibers into a hard shell. Cholla wood like MaloK suggested is a great idea to.

There are so many options

The matter a fact is, that Dwarf Gouramies are jerks and they grow a lot more than the 2.5 inch advertised. They quickly become an hindrance to everything and themselves in low numbers.

But they are "the" My most beloved and certainly where the one that got me getting an aquarium in the first place.

An happy well fed Blue Powder will grow to 4.5 inches with no problems. I never tried to add live shrimps in the diet.

But they bullied everything in their sight. They have special armament (like all gouramies) and are able to inflict offensive strikes that are pretty gnarly.

With erosion the tips of their very rigid and broad dorsal and anal fins, become serrated knives, and they have a tendency to use them.

Ouch! Yeah, I read that those are prone to be more aggressive.

Males cannot be in sight of each other long term. But a lonely one in a community, could become more tame.

But they are still as beautiful as nasty.

Here's the thing in question that got me into it.

Yeah. They are pretty. I considered them, but I can't consider them anymore now. Too bad. They look like small discus!
But a lone male Honey Gourami I'm still considering.

I have both the red and blue Davidi varieties. Both, are in smaller densely planted tanks. In one tank I gave a few CPDs and in the other albino BN and a few white clouds. In my bigger planted tanks I only keep amano shrimp. Adult amanos will eat small fry. I know this for a fact. I have some amanos in the blue shrimp tank. I was afraid they might eat the Neos. Nut I started with about 15 of the blues which I got at 10 and 5 separated by almost a year.

For the past 19 months I have brought two bags containing 10-12 blue shrimp to sell in my fish club's monthly meeting auctions. I estimate I could have another 40-50 in the 15 gal. where they live.

I got the original red Neos about 15 years ago. Since then I have kept them with killies and CPDs and one more species I don't remember. I know that some of the shrimp babies must have been lunch. But I never got fry from any of the fish and I attribute that to the possibility that the shrimp may have munched the fish eggs.

In my very first tank I had a pair of Trichogaster lalius got when they had their prior name (The prior name for Trichogaster lalius was Colisa lalia. ). He built a bubble nest in the floating plants and they spawned. The male tends the brood and does not want the female around. My male made sure of that. Then one day as I walked into the room with the tank I watched him chase her off and she bolted into the glass. The impact was hard enough that I heard it. She was dead an hour or so. I never got fry.

When I fist got them they where still called Colisa Lalia...

To have multiple couples in the same tank. It needed a layer of floating plants that was a third of the tank height.

They loved it when they had to struggle trough to get to the surface and could hang anywhere they wanted feeling hidden. They also love jumping random on top of the layer and see what they find.

The plant cover also helped a lot keeping nests integrity and females out of sight. While not chasing ladies or watching frys, They where sparring in the lower part of the tank.

Not really the sight wanted of a show tank... But really amazing fish, conscious of their keeper and playing games with you during maintenance. They'll spit water at you to get your attention.