# Shrimp with Assassin Snails and Beta?



## Bobtastic (10 Feb 2011)

Hi all, 

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with keeping shrimp with assassin snails? Are they compatible?

I ask as I introduced some shrimps to a 110L community tank with Platties, Ottos, cory cats and a male beta that also had an assassin snail in. All seemed to be going will with the shrimp colony, numbers went up, but now they all seem to have disappeared...  

I'm trying to look for the reason for their disappearance and the only thing I can think of is snail or beta... Is that likely? or is it something else?


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## dw1305 (10 Feb 2011)

Hi all,
Assassin snails have been reported to eat shrimps, but this must be a vanishingly rare occurrence. Fish are different matter and all your fish other than the _Otocinclus_ will eat shrimplets. I would also think your_ Betta _is capable of dealing with full sized Cherry Shrimps. I've been feeding Red Cherry Shrimps to a lot of my fish, and they are almost universally accepted as a food item, in some cases they have rapidly become the favourite food item, although I feed a lot of other life food. The only tanks that have maintained both fish and shrimps long term are those housing a colony of _Corydoras hastatus_ and some male Endlers, and another with just a trio (1M:2F) of Thread-fin Rainbows. 

One thing that might be worth investigating is the sex ratio of the shrimps you have left. If you have mainly adult females? it is definitely the fish. The females are fairly sedentary, but the males swim around a lot (looking for females) and are usually encountered and eaten more often, they are also smaller.

cheers Darrel


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## DavidC (5 Mar 2011)

the snail would eat them given the opportunity but it is far too slow. The Betta is more likely. How long did you have them together before they started disappearing? Seems odd he has suddenly got a taste for them.


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## Bobtastic (5 Mar 2011)

It was a few of months. They were in there long enough to breed. Maybe it was something else. I attached some Java fern to some rock for a friend, he gave me the rock and I used a different type of super glue than I'd used b4. Maybe it W's something in the glue or possibly the rock...


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## LondonDragon (6 Mar 2011)

Betta will eat shrimplets and so will the corries  their fav food!


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## Anonymous (11 Apr 2011)

the assasin snails are probably the culprits they attak while the shrimp are sheding thair skin as i found out with one of my sss grade shrimp


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## Bobtastic (11 Apr 2011)

Well... it's pretty clear that everything I have in this tank is gonna make a meal of the poor little shrimpies! No wonder they didn't stand a chance!


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## hotweldfire (11 Apr 2011)

Only time I've seen an assassin take out one of my shrimp is when that shrimp is on it's last legs anyway, stumbling around like it was drunk. Fish are a different matter. Only keep mine with otos, pygmy cories and microrasbora. Even then shimplets are vulnerable without a large amount of cover.


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## a1Matt (11 Apr 2011)

hotweldfire said:
			
		

> Only keep mine with otos, pygmy cories and microrasbora.



Same here.
Even with those fish though the shrimp are going to hide more than if they were kept in a species tank.


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## m_attt (13 Apr 2011)

bit late but my be usefull for someone,

but got theese pics today, as you can see the shrips are feeding the assasin was touching them for quite a while and shrimp were not bothered, didnt attempt to attack or eat the shrimp, and the shrimps just stepped out way. then the snail carried on.


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## Bobtastic (13 Apr 2011)

My shrimps had plenty of cover, or at least seemed to have. Oh well... The Assassin snail seems to have been a victum of its own success... no more snails... means no more food. Guess he thought the shrimps looked tasty!


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## hotweldfire (13 Apr 2011)

Come to think of it the shrimp are more of a hassle to the snails than the other way round. Regularly see them riding on top of an assassin picking algae off the shell (which is no bad thing) but also having an occasional go at nibbling their faces (obviously unsuccessfully).

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk


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