Armoured Shrimp

[Bex]

Hello!

I have a Rena Aqualife 150x50 and have seen some Armoured shrimp in my LFS. They are approx 3" at the moment. We are thinking of getting one but I want to make sure it would be ok with my other fish?

Tanks mates would be: 6 Tiger Barbs, 10 Harlequin Rasboras, 2 Bala sharks, 1 Red Tail Black shark, 3 platy's, 1 mollie, 1 Royal plec, 2 Synodontis Eupterus (these are the ones I'm wondering about although they have never touched another fish they are about 4" and 3"), 6 Corydora Trileanus.

We will be getting more plecs - 2 Red Whiptail catfish, 1 Green Phantom and 1 King tiger.

I know these guys get pretty big, if 1 would be ok with the above tank mates, is there anything else I should knwo about them and how to care for them?

 

[Bex]

*bump*

Anyone? Would love one of these guys but not if my other fisheys will want to eat it!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I don't know if a syno would eat an armoured shrimp, but i would generally advise at least 3ft tank for an armoured shrimp (at least 40gals)- having the tank run successfully for at least 6months is important as these shrimp depend on an abundancy of tiny organisms living in the tank water to eat, some of the most common killers of armoured shrimp is;
a. Starvation
b. Meds which contain things like copper.
c. Water quality problems.

These shrimp look great but they do spend a lot of their time hiding in piles of rocks or caves, having a rockpile or cave in the tank is important for these shrimp to stay happy as they are quite shy around other tankmates even if they are just tiny tetras- positioning its rock pile near some good current is also good as the shrimp will go where it is most likely to catch lots of things to eat in the current.

If your tank isn't very mature or very large, you can have armoured shrimp live off liquid or fine powdered livebearer fry foods (Liquifry is good), although some people question the success of this in the long run, so overal, its just better to have a large and mature tank and substitute its diet with fry foods every now and then, than for the shrimp to just depend on than just fry foods to survive .

Adding a fish liquid vitamin/mineral supliment to the water will also help the shrimp in shell development as its sheds its shell as it grows (making it all the more important for it to have somewhere safe to hide while it is in this process or has soft new shell).

 

[Bex]

Thanks Tokis

My tank is 5ft so size isn't a problem and I have some nice big bits of wood that have lots of hidey holes. Not thinking of getting one for a while yet anyway, thanks for the good advice though!

 

[three-fingers]

I also have a Synodontis Eupterus and was wondering the same thing . But my tank is 2.6 feet so i guess an armoured shrimps out of the question untill i upgrade my tank......which judging by the way things are going will be ages .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks Tokis

My tank is 5ft so size isn't a problem and I have some nice big bits of wood that have lots of hidey holes. Not thinking of getting one for a while yet anyway, thanks for the good advice though!

Glad to help !

 

[joloco]

I have two cameroon armoured shrimps (gets to 15cm so its quite a good option for a smaller tank) with really beautiful colouration. They are fan feeders and will hide for the majority of the time so if you're thinking you might see him trundling about its probably unlikely unless you have a moonlight bulb and then you won't see their colours anyway.

I keep tiger barbs with one and they completely ignore him..... but then he does spend about 98% of his time hiding. I have another in another tank who is so shy even though his tank mates ignore him completely and are less than a third of his size (neon tetras) he never comes out from under his rock (I have sand substrate so i could see his foot and tail prints) and just filters the water from there.

so i'd really think about it before you buy and don't be tempted by their colouration.

this website is quite good - lots of photos and info
www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk