# Amano shrimp preying on Cherry



## louis_last (21 Mar 2021)

I don't believe this shrimp was dead when the Amano found it, I think it was trying to moult. I overfed this tank trying to get my Boraras maculatus to breed, in particular too many microworms, and I had a real snail explosion as well as a bad cloudy water situation going on.  I stopped feeeding foods that foul the water entirely while I tried to resolve the cloudy water. There were plenty of Moina and copepods in the tank for the boraras to eat and actually the moina have been reproducing in the tank while they fed on whatever bacteria was clouding the water. I didn't consider the fact that the tank doesn't actually have any visible algae at all for the amanos to eat - and this is the result. The moina lifecycle is quite short so I hope they've not got a taste for crustaceans from cleaning up any dead adult moina.
Fissidens fontanus on the right and some recently added Riccardia on the left.


----------



## tiger15 (21 Mar 2021)

Did you find the cherry already dead before the Amano found and eat it, or the Amano hunt it down.


----------



## Zeus. (21 Mar 2021)

Never seen an Amano chasing a RCS, seen plenty of Amanos and RCS eating a dead RCS as thats what they do 'clean up'


----------



## louis_last (21 Mar 2021)

tiger15 said:


> Did you find the cherry already dead before the Amano found and eat it, or the Amano hunt it down.


I don't think it hunted the cherry down, I think it found the cherry while it was vulnerable moulting and decided to eat it because it could and was hungrier than usual. I found them like this though so the cherry could have been dead already.


----------



## louis_last (21 Mar 2021)

Zeus. said:


> Never seen an Amano chasing a RCS, seen plenty of Amanos and RCS eating a dead RCS as thats what they do 'clean up'


I've seen mine appear to attack cherries before. They grab them but usually the cherry can break free.


----------



## Zeus. (21 Mar 2021)

I do see the RCS riding piggy back on the Amanos very occasionally, never quick enough to get a pic 🤷‍♂️


----------



## Wookii (21 Mar 2021)

Interesting behaviour. It’s quite big prey for an Amano.

I’ve seen both Amanos and Cherry’s take live food that I’ve fed for the fish - they happily take grindal worms, and will swim in the water column to catch BBS and even some fairly large Moina.  Have you seen yours take Moina @louis_last?

As Zeus says, I’ve seen  several Cherry’s jump on Amano’s around the feeding dish and appear to ‘test’ its back looking for food, and I’ve seen both taking ‘care’ and their dead, but I’ve never seen an Amano take a live Cherry, even small babies.


----------



## louis_last (22 Mar 2021)

Wookii said:


> Interesting behaviour. It’s quite big prey for an Amano.
> 
> I’ve seen both Amanos and Cherry’s take live food that I’ve fed for the fish - they happily take grindal worms, and will swim in the water column to catch BBS and even some fairly large Moina.  Have you seen yours take Moina @louis_last?
> 
> As Zeus says, I’ve seen  several Cherry’s jump on Amano’s around the feeding dish and appear to ‘test’ its back looking for food, and I’ve seen both taking ‘care’ and their dead, but I’ve never seen an Amano take a live Cherry, even small babies.


I think the amanos definitely eat some of the moina. It's not something I've observed directly but the larger ones that the Boraras tend to pass over still disappear and like you say, they love worms of all kinds. That's why I'm considering the unlikely possibility that this one has got a taste for crustaceans from all the livefood.
The cherry is very freshly dead because the flesh hasn't changed from white to pink yet and in my experience their colour tends to intensify right before moulting - this one seems to be a very vivid red.
It's not a huge concern because there's tons of cherries breeding in there, I'd just never seen it before and it seems like too much of a coincidence that it happened when I had dramatically reduced feeding.


----------



## tiger15 (25 Mar 2021)

louis_last said:


> I think the amanos definitely eat some of the moina. It's not something I've observed directly but the larger ones that the Boraras tend to pass over still disappear and like you say, they love worms of all kinds. That's why I'm considering the unlikely possibility that this one has got a taste for crustaceans from all the livefood.
> The cherry is very freshly dead because the flesh hasn't changed from white to pink yet and in my experience their colour tends to intensify right before moulting - this one seems to be a very vivid red.
> It's not a huge concern because there's tons of cherries breeding in there, I'd just never seen it before and it seems like too much of a coincidence that it happened when I had dramatically reduced feeding.


The Amano could have eaten a dead Moina.  Scavenging is often mistaken as preying.

 I attempted to feed daphnia to my cherry but they showed no interest in preying on live daphnia.  I saw daphnia jerk at the face of a cherry which would just ignore.  But the daphnia will slowly died off for lack of food and become food for the cherry.  There are other live  critters such as seed shrimp, detritus worms and planaria, all ignored by cherry.


----------



## Wookii (25 Mar 2021)

tiger15 said:


> The Amano could have eaten a dead Moina.  Scavenging is often mistaken as preying.
> 
> I attempted to feed daphnia to my cherry but they showed no interest in preying on live daphnia.  I saw daphnia jerk at the face of a cherry which would just ignore.  But the daphnia will slowly died off for lack of food and become food for the cherry.  There are other live  critters such as seed shrimp, detritus worms and planaria, all ignored by cherry.



I’ve watched my Amanos catch live Moina and live brine shrimp several times.


----------



## tiger15 (26 Mar 2021)

Wookii said:


> I’ve watched my Amanos catch live Moina and live brine shrimp several times.


So Amano is more predatory than cherry.  Just wish Amano would prey on seed shrimp and planaria.


----------



## louis_last (26 Mar 2021)

tiger15 said:


> So Amano is more predatory than cherry.  Just wish Amano would prey on seed shrimp and planaria.


You might already know this but actually plenty of fish prey on seed shrimp, they just aren't always capable of digesting them. The seed shrimp can close their shell. A live seed shrimp goes in one end of the fish - and a live seed shrimp comes out the other end of the fish.


----------



## louis_last (28 Mar 2021)

Happened again. Apoligies for the quality of this photo. This tank has been running for years and even the newest amano has been in there for at least a full year without me ever noticing this happen before. It seems like way too much of a coincidence that this starts happening after a period of minimal feeding. 
I really think that one or two of the biggest amanos figured out that they could prey on cherries when they were particularly hungry and now they've got a taste for it. They're being fed very well now with a quality high protein food so I'm surprised they're still eating the cherries.
Be wary of letting these guys get too hungry, if I catch one eating any of my tiny fish then the amanos are in big trouble.


----------



## Hufsa (17 Apr 2021)

This whole thread makes me uncomfortable  
I just got a handful of baby amanos to see if they will help me with some thread algae between chowing down on fishfood. 
My SO really likes the amanos as well, so its not like I can make them into a shrimp cocktail if they misbehave later on 🦐🍸


----------



## Tim Harrison (17 Apr 2021)

It's just the law of the jungle. Feed your shrimp with algae wafers etc. I'm sure there will be far less predation.


----------



## ScaperJoe (17 Apr 2021)

My Amano's are eating my _alternanthera reineckii mini_ at the moment (by accident while they much the algae I think) which is a far less horrifying sight. Still distressing though


----------



## Hufsa (17 Apr 2021)

Oh @ScaperJoe they can do it on purpose too. Lots of threads with amanos eating the tasty new shoots off plants if hungry. Alternanthera species seem to be one of their favorites


----------



## ScaperJoe (17 Apr 2021)

Hufsa said:


> Oh @ScaperJoe they can do it on purpose too. Lots of threads with amanos eating the tasty new shoots off plants if hungry. Alternanthera species seem to be one of their favorites


Maybe its a sign that I need to increase their 'wages' before they show any more signs of industrial action!


----------

