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Ive got a few armoured fan shrimp and a small colony of amanos, but I was wondering if anyone out there had experiences with freshwater crabs and other shrimp etc that they have had experiences of that were positive, or indeed negative.

What would you recommend for community tanks with small to moderate sized fish, and also if you had any luck breeding them , and how it happened.

In particular if anyone has personal experience of shrimp and crabs that specialise in scavenging rather than algae eating, i would love to hear about them.

I guess im looking for that perfect shrimp or crab that scavenges yet doesnt kill fish, and doesnt really appeal to the fish as a source of food.Even some info on freshwater molluscs that any of you may have personal experience of would be appreciated.

Ive got a whole library of info, but its really the personal accounts id like to hear.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Sep-2005 21:21

Well the ghost shrimp which at least here are very cheap and easy to find are scavengers which don't bother fish and aren't real difficult to reproduce. You just have to have a setup that keeps the young safe from predators.
Rainbow shrimp are another shrimp that prefers to scavenge. I was told they are a cardina species. Unfortunately they don't seem anywhere near as hardy as ghost shrimp since I only have 2 left out of a dozen. I have a beautiful dark blue one and a brownish red one. They seem to be mostly nocturnal too because I didn't even know I had those left until I tore down the tank. They are a bit smaller than ghost shrimp and a bit more likely to get eaten by larger or agressive fish.
The next shrimp I'm interested in keeping are midget shrimp but they are more algae eaters.
There was a type of small fish safe crayfish listed on aquabid but I forget the name.

I have had reasonable success with Atiydae shrimp (can't be too specific, there aren't many sourses that will help with ID, possibly Paratya australiense) and they are very good scavengers if the fish don't manage to eat them.

I haven't really kept many species in a community tank, its mainly all been species-tank creatures.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I had a 2 inch bamboo shrimp that was doing alright in my community tank......until he molted. I found the front half of his shell at one end of my tank, the back half at the other and a little piece of tail "meat" in the middle. Poor guy.:#(

I've had experience with numerous Macrobrachium sp. (long-arm prawns), Atya lanipes (Caribbean fan shrimp), Xiphocaris elongata (yellow-nose shrimp), and various Palaemonetes (ghost shrimp) - of both mainland North America and Puerto Rico; Procambarid crayfish; Sesarma sp. (red-claw crabs), snails of the genera Tarebia, Neritina (nerites), Pomacea (apple snails), Planorbis (ramshorn snails), Physa (common pond snails), and Lymnaea (greater pond snails); and Corbicula fluminea (golden Asian clams).

Of these (the situational objectionability of Pomacea and Physa notwithstanding), all but certain Macrobrachium sp., said crayfish, Sesarma spp., and C. fluminea are suited to general community setups.

Last edited by Veneer at 05-Sep-2005 22:18

I have a shrimp tank full of various neocaridina species (cherry shrimp and other color morphs), and I keep dwarf crayfish (procambarus hinei) in a community tank with my large pleco and angelfish. I don't keep small shrimp with my community fish because even if they don't get eaten outright, they hide all the time and I never see them, whereas in a species only tank (the shrimp tank is only 7 gallons) they thrive and are very active, and they breed every 3-4 weeks! The dwarf crayfish are wonderful to watch, harmless to fish, and so far they have been quite hardy, living just fine through several molts and they can holkd their own against curious carnivorious fish (like my angels). I havn't seen them in any pets stores or LFS, but there's usually someone selling them on AquaBid.com, and I've had very good luck buying live fish through the mail from the sellers on that site.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thanks for the suggestions dudes tthe sesarma sound really interesting, might see if I can track some down.