Hi, I have red about the anti-algae benefits of shrimp, but have a discus tank. Is any of the breeds of shrimp large enough or confident enough to be ok in a discus tank? Any info appreciated!
I know Jeff Cannons (jazzyjeff) kept/keeps Amano shrimp in his planted discus tank. I plan on trying the same soon...
If you've got a tank with smaller fish, and some patience just buy some amano shrimps as soon as you can. They grow to a good four or five cm long, and are pretty chunky (especially the females). They live for many years after they reach that size. (My biggest one (named Moth-Ra) is about five years old.) Actually, there are two Moth-Ras, both females, same age age, and both still constantly covered in eggs. I wish I had the time and patience to raise the eggs, but all that salt water malarkey is just too much for me. Also, I'm sure the fish appreciate the regular feasts when the poor little blighters are released every couple of weeks! Try and see some mature amanos if you have any mates who keep them - I have never kept discus, but their mouths don't look that big to me. Mark
I've kept them before with 8-10cm discus and they were fine, i did have a panic when i thought that the discus were picking them off but it turned out to just be the sheeded shell of the shrimp As with most fish, they won't attempt to swallow them whole, just peck away at them and take the meaty bits
Hi, I keep about 15 amano shrimp with 6 large discus, they don't seem to bother with them as long as they're well fed. Being in a well planted tank with wood there are plenty of places for them to hide where the discus couldn't get to them but they've never seemed bothered. Discus do love tiny snails though & often I hear them pecking them off the glass! Regards Will
Last time I went to Maidenhead Aquatics I saw some Amano Shrimp and I was surprised out how big some of them were! Especially compared to my Cherry Shrimp.
I've kept both wild and tank bred discus, and have only noticed the odd wild one having a quick snack on my old shrimps. They basically followed one, then lunged with a quick bite, hopefully stunning the shrimp with the first bite, then after a couple of chumps the shrimp was gone. These were the smaller algae eating shrimps, and not the larger Amano ones.
I've read that Amano shrimps have different temperature requirements and that they cannot tolerate the high temperatures of Discus. For those of you keeping both in the same tank what temperature do you keep it at? Since we're on the topic of Discus companions, how well do Otocinclus and Green Tetra's fair? Reagards
My Discus love to hunt Shrimp! Not very successfully, I might add. They're fast little blighters! I have some small red ones, that just appeared in the tank, the filter is alway full of them.
I'd always avoid keeping shrimp with discus, as at some point, you're going to need to worm the tank, which doesn't tend to be invert friendly.
They'll definitely try to eat whatever they can. Despite not being aggressive, discus are highly partial to live food which means anything smaller than their mouths and moving. With that said, if you choose adult sized Amanos, close to 1" kind of sizes, and provide lots of hiding places, you should be fine. Discus don't have the mean streak of puffers so they won't actively go all out to kill your shrimps.
Fish have color vision and according the LFS discus breeder i regularly visit, he says they will hunt shrimps with red colors.. Discus seem to be very attracted to the color red and go specialy bonkers over blood worms and or tubifex etc.. Thus any small sized shrimp with a red color is likely to be recognized as a possible food source and no go for a discus tank. Any other type of shrimp is a gamble could work could not work...
Imagine a discus eating some grade AAA crystal red within seconds and the worst part is it'll go after the head first.
