# Cannibal Shrimp!!!



## Fishy Flora (Jul 2, 2012)

Hi,

I'm a bit of a newbie... I thought keeping fish was easy until I started and am now learning something new everyday!

At the moment I've got a goldfish tank with three small Comet (I think) goldfish, and have also set up a shrimp tank. I started off with 2 Amano shrimp and have since added 6 red cherry shrimp and ten white cloud minnows (all approved by my local aquarium guy who seems really good). They've all been living happily together for the past few weeks and have never shown the slightest interest in each other. 

I went to Pets at Home yesterday and saw some different kind of shrimp in one of the tanks and asked what they were. The girl looked at the sign told me they were Yamato shrimp, which I believe are Amano shrimp but under a different name. I have to say I didn't believe her as they look quite different to the shrimp I already had, although I am new so I could be very wrong. I asked if they would be ok with my other shrimp and she said yes. So I bought two and introduced them into my tank, fed them and everything seemed to be ok. After doing a bit of research, especially using this site (www.ukshrimp.co.uk) I think they are actually American ghost shrimp or glass shrimp, but thought that they should be ok. 

However, 3 hours after putting them into my tank, I found one of them happily munching on one of my poor little red cherry shrimp!! Is this normal? I've now moved these two newbies into my goldfish tank (there are plenty of small hiding places and shrubbery for them to lurk in and they're way bigger than anything that could fit into the fishes' mouths so thought this would be ok in the short term!). Is there any possibility that this was a one off event? I'm not keen to put them back in with the shrimps, but am now wondering what to do with them. Any advice? Apologies if any of this is well known, I am still a novice and learning as I go on!

Many thanks for any advice!


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## jamestanker (Jun 30, 2012)

I have about 30 ghost shrimp in my 75 gallon tank. Used to be 100 but the dumb ones were eaten by my sliders 

I have never seen them stacking each other. However that doesn't mean they don't attack other species. 

They did charge the turtles at first. And many of them were eaten in that moment of curiosity


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## Charlie1 (Dec 31, 2011)

I do not own cherry shrimp, but I do own amano and ghost, but still have never heard of this. How large are these cherry shrimp, because if they are smaller then it could have goten eaten, though cherries are generally larger than ghosties. the ghost shrimp may also have been eating a shedded exo-skeliton from a cherry shrimp in which case all your shrimp are fine because shrimp shed and eat their exo-skeliton for protein.


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## Fishy Flora (Jul 2, 2012)

Hiya,

Thanks for getting back to me. The cherry shrimp are pretty small compared to the amano and ghost shrimp. Guess that's why it got eaten! Was definitely eaten... caught the ghost shrimp in the act, with the red's head in it's claws! Ah well... the ghost shrimp actually seem fairly happy with the goldfish for the moment, who ignore them, so will leave them there for the time being. And I have now learnt my lesson - research!! Never again will I assume that all shrimp will be ok with each other!


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## jamestanker (Jun 30, 2012)

good to know


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

ghost shrimp are sometimes known to attack other shrimp, but normaly only weak ones that don't take a lot of effort to catch. This way the ghost shrimp prevent deseases from spreading in a tank by eliminating the weak. It might seem cruel, but sometimes survival of the fitest is the right way.


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