# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Anabantoids >  Can fighting fish be kept with shrimps?

## Mystikboy

ive some fire shrimps in a 10gallon tank. scaped, with moss/ferns/anubias
but i think there's too little action, so im thinking of introducing a fighting fish. 
will there be any problems?

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## 900801

The fighting fish may eat the shrimplets or may even attack the adults. If you want to add some fishes can add some microrasboras. Look good for scape tank and does less harm to the shrimps.

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## Mystikboy

im looking for a fish that has a low bioload.

where do you find microrasboras anyway? =D

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## 900801

You can find them at Clementi Florist & Aquarium (C32 :Cool: . They usually come in very small size. However as they grow bigger( much smaller than fighting fishes) they may eat the shrimplets. It's advisable not to put fishes with shrimps.

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## Mystikboy

my tank has plenty of moss and wood. would that be adequate shelter?

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## 900801

If you feed the microrasboras well then they might not eat your shrimplets. Maybe they might snack on a few. Most fishes still pefer live food.

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## Mystikboy

yeah but thing is, my tank is filled with mosses =/
that should do a decent job protecting shrimplets from either the betta or the micro, wouldn't it?

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## Emokidz

Nope. THe fighting fish will hunt them down one by one. Even the bigger ones will get nipped and die.

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## Mystikboy

So are there any fishes that can peacefully cohabit with shrimps..?

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## eviltrain

nope, because shrimps are basically the bottom of the food chain.

unless you have a bigger tank and a lot of hiding place for your shrimps to provide cover for them.

just my 2 cents.

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## felix_fx2

> So are there any fishes that can peacefully cohabit with shrimps..?


Fish will eat anything they can get when hungry. Kept betta with shrimps before, it will hunt down some shrimplets and harass the adults.

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## stormhawk

Only 1 fish will cohabit with shrimps in peace - Otocinclus. Every other fish will attempt or basically eat them, especially Bettas, which have pretty large mouths.

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## admael

I have 8 adult sized amano shrimp shrimp with otos, sterbai corys, cardinal tetras and a betta.

no one has ever swam near the shrimp let alone attack them

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## Shaihulud

I had small feeder bettas that slowly dismantled a group of yamatos, so propably not a good idea.

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## johannes

Other small fishes that may be possible to keep with shrimps would be clown killie, dario dario and small schooling fishes. 
Your shrimplets may get eaten but probably has higher survival rate in a heavily planted set up.
On the other hand, you can comm plecos with shrimps, surprisingly... and still be able to produce plenty of shrimplets
Usually, if you want to comm shrimps with fishes, be prepared to lose some shrimps.

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## dragonn

I strongly disagree keeping shrimps with bettas, regardless of their size, I used to keep bettas fry with shrimps in the past, thought it would work out , however ended up I lose all the 10 shrimps one day when I work up, cause the bettas fry which is about 2 months old ate them up!

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## darylets

I beg to differ though. I have around 10 bettas in my comm tank living happily together with my shrimps in my 2 feet tank. all i did was have a large piece of driftwood in the centre and it works fine for me so far. If you are willing to experiment then u could try one betta to one shrimp first.

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## GuppyLover

I used to keep my betta with my shrimp. The only thing that the betta did was inspect the shrimps when I introduced them then he never disturbed them at all. I had a non-aggressive betta. I even see shrimplets around the betta and it just ignores it. But don't take the risk.

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## apistomaster

> So are there any fishes that can peacefully cohabit with shrimps..?


There are quite a few fish which may be kept with small ornamental freshwater shrimp.
I maintain a thriving dual colonies of common Cherry Shrimp with my breeding colony of Corydoras hastatus.
There are hundreds of both sharing a 20 gal long US measure 12 X 12 X 30 inches.

Cherry Shrimp thrive in warmer water than many shrimp. I often have large colonies of Cherry Shrimp in my pleco breeding set ups. I have Cherry Shrimp thriving with both my Peckoltia compta AKA Leopard Frog(L134 Pleco).
Also the same with my Hypancistrus sp L260, Queen Arabesque.
I keep both pleco species at about 84*F/~28*C.

I know that Cherry Shrimp and wild type Zebra Shrimp can maintain their numbers in well planted tanks with Celestial Pearl Danios, (Celestichthys margaritatus)..
The Danios eat a few newly hatched shrimp but if the tank is well planted most shrimp will survive long enough to grow too large to be eaten.

I can't think of many Anabantids which work well with shrimp however Trichopsis pumilis, Pygmy Sparkling Gourami, may be kept with shrimp similarly to the CPD example.

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## Neondagger

> So are there any fishes that can peacefully cohabit with shrimps..?


Vegetarian fish lor. Oto is one. Algae eater

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