Angel + amano shrimp == bad mix...

zanytomato

zanytomato

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Jul 31, 2007
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So apparently angelfish like eating amano shrimp. I've had 5 or 6 shrimp die over the past few weeks; I've attributed it to the yeast mess I got myself into when my CO2 fell over, and that they were probably more sensitive to the small ammonia spike that I got (they've been recently molting, too).

That is until tonight. I look over and there is my angel, trying hard to keep his back to me I swear, with something in his mouth. Of course I head right over to see what he's up to, only to discover one of my amanos halfway swallowed! And my angel looking a little confused as to what to do next. Clearly the shrimp had just died as he hadn't gone bright white yet. Angel tried valiantly to swallow him, then finally spat him out and lost interest (though he had "busted" written all over him). Had I not seen the whole incident I would have just found the dead shrimp later and figured it was for the same reason that the other shrimps had died.

So, was I silly? Did I introduce a bad mix? I'm guessing my angel finally got big enough to consider the poor little guys as food.
 
zanytomato said:
So apparently angelfish like eating amano shrimp. I've had 5 or 6 shrimp die over the past few weeks; I've attributed it to the yeast mess I got myself into when my CO2 fell over, and that they were probably more sensitive to the small ammonia spike that I got (they've been recently molting, too).

That is until tonight. I look over and there is my angel, trying hard to keep his back to me I swear, with something in his mouth. Of course I head right over to see what he's up to, only to discover one of my amanos halfway swallowed! And my angel looking a little confused as to what to do next. Clearly the shrimp had just died as he hadn't gone bright white yet. Angel tried valiantly to swallow him, then finally spat him out and lost interest (though he had "busted" written all over him). Had I not seen the whole incident I would have just found the dead shrimp later and figured it was for the same reason that the other shrimps had died.

So, was I silly? Did I introduce a bad mix? I'm guessing my angel finally got big enough to consider the poor little guys as food.
Click to expand...

Is this in the 20g tank from your sig? Is the tank planted? Java moss gives the shrimp a hiding spot so they can escape predation, as do a lot of other plants. This clever little guy was hiding from my discus in some Aponogeton Crispus.
amanoshrimp.jpg
 
Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

I think in my recent cleaning from the yeast I probably shifted some of their usual hiding spots. I'm WC'ing today, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to re-scape as I had before. My tank is fairly heavily planted, but I've also been doing some re-arranging.. perhaps I've just disturbed them enough that they ran into my angel's view.

I swear he looks guilty this morning, though ;)
 
zanytomato said:
Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

I think in my recent cleaning from the yeast I probably shifted some of their usual hiding spots. I'm WC'ing today, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to re-scape as I had before. My tank is fairly heavily planted, but I've also been doing some re-arranging.. perhaps I've just disturbed them enough that they ran into my angel's view.

I swear he looks guilty this morning, though ;)
Click to expand...

Hahaha... I know the feeling. :-P I'm still not sure if breeding cherry shrimp in my tank will work out or not, but I'm very tempted to give it a shot. At very least, I may get another 5-6 amano shrimp and see how they do.
 
Well I've done a rescape with the shrimps in mind, so hopefully they'll find some good hidey-holes.

While cleaning I did find another headless shrimp... hmm, I wonder who that could have been?
 
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