Unique Experience Or New Disclaimer

[liam14606]

I haven't seen anyone mention this so I want to atleast document my experience. My two honeys Mango and Sriracha are in a 20 gallon with plants, stones, and a very small colony of red cherry shrimp. They have managed to live about four months in absolute peace (except maybe some shrimplets lol) but recently I've had dead or dying shrimps missing parts of their body. I dont think the honeys can eat them whole but it seems to be that they attack adult shrimp while or after they have molted, but cant even hide the evidence lol. Has any one else had this happen?

 

[RelaxingBettas]

Not with gouramis (which I haven't had for forty years, lol- it's pretty vague), but my scarlet badises defied the 'anything that can fit in the mouth' rule and went from tiny fishlets happy to coexist with a mini shrimp colony and eat their daphnea to absolute decimation one week moons later, as soon as they figured out pieces of shrimp fit very nicely indeed.

 

[Fishstery]

I haven't seen anyone mention this so I want to atleast document my experience. My two honeys Mango and Sriracha are in a 20 gallon with plants, stones, and a very small colony of red cherry shrimp. They have managed to live about four months in absolute peace (except maybe some shrimplets lol) but recently I've had dead or dying shrimps missing parts of their body. I dont think the honeys can eat them whole but it seems to be that they attack adult shrimp while or after they have molted, but cant even hide the evidence lol. Has any one else had this happen?

I haven't kept gouramis with shrimp except for sparkling gouramis which are MUCH smaller and I had them pick off some of my neocardinas. I never bothered to try any with my honeys because I assumed that they would eat them because of how gouramis are personality wise. While honey gouramis are known to be more peaceful than other species they are still gouramis nonetheless, so truthfully im not surprised. I have a wild type honey that is a special exception to the "they prefer company of other honeys" rule because he absolutely HATES having other honeys in the tank. He is extremely pushy around feeding time and likes to chase my cardinal tetras away.

 

[APColorado]

shrimps in a tank with fish will always be in the bottom of the food chain.

 

[liam14606]

Not with gouramis (which I haven't had for forty years, lol- it's pretty vague), but my scarlet badises defied the 'anything that can fit in the mouth' rule and went from tiny fishlets happy to coexist with a mini shrimp colony and eat their daphnea to absolute decimation one week moons later, as soon as they figured out pieces of shrimp fit very nicely indeed.

Woah! That's a long time in the hobby, I can only wish. I haven't even been alive for half that long lol. That's really similar to my experience ( as in once they get a small taste, they cant help themselves) thats good to know about smaller fish in general, as I was thinking about getting scarlets one day.

I haven't kept gouramis with shrimp except for sparkling gouramis which are MUCH smaller and I had them pick off some of my neocardinas. I never bothered to try any with my honeys because I assumed that they would eat them because of how gouramis are personality wise. While honey gouramis are known to be more peaceful than other species they are still gouramis nonetheless, so truthfully im not surprised. I have a wild type honey that is a special exception to the "they prefer company of other honeys" rule because he absolutely HATES having other honeys in the tank. He is extremely pushy around feeding time and likes to chase my cardinal tetras away.

Glad to know I'm not alone then! You're right I shouldn't be that surprised, I guess it was just the long grace period and the sudden 180 that got me lol. I still love them as fish though, I guess now I just know they can be aggressive towards others just because they are gouramis.

 

[Fishstery]

Not with gouramis (which I haven't had for forty years, lol- it's pretty vague), but my scarlet badises defied the 'anything that can fit in the mouth' rule and went from tiny fishlets happy to coexist with a mini shrimp colony and eat their daphnea to absolute decimation one week moons later, as soon as they figured out pieces of shrimp fit very nicely indeed.

I loved my scarlet badis trio so much when I used to keep them in a nano. I had a colony of about 20-30 adults and some shrimplets of various neocardina colors and they decimated the population in a week once they started to get bigger. Which I was fine with because I couldn't get my badis to eat anything but live food, and after my LFS had a bad batch of blackworms go out I was glad they had food for 2 weeks before I could get any better blackworms.

 

[RelaxingBettas]

I loved my scarlet badis trio so much when I used to keep them in a nano. I had a colony of about 20-30 adults and some shrimplets of various neocardina colors and they decimated the population in a week once they started to get bigger. Which I was fine with because I couldn't get my badis to eat anything but live food, and after my LFS had a bad batch of blackworms go out I was glad they had food for 2 weeks before I could get any better blackworms.

I get nervous about my daphnea still and I think my walter worms are about to crash, I lean hard on the vinegar eels and bbs- mine only eat live, despite numerous attempts to tempt with frozen. I don't know what blackworms are but now I feel like I'd better find out lol.

 

[Fishstery]

I get nervous about my daphnea still and I think my walter worms are about to crash, I lean hard on the vinegar eels and bbs- mine only eat live, despite numerous attempts to tempt with frozen. I don't know what blackworms are but now I feel like I'd better find out lol.

They are much easier to keep a live culture of. Or my LFS just sells portions of them you keep in a cup of water in the fridge. Dump the water out and replace it every other day and they will keep for like 2 weeks or more. They are longer worms so I would just cut them up and feed my badis with tweezers. Luckily they would still move when cut otherwise my badis would ignore it.