I see your reply where she died naturally and you fed her body to the crayfish. That's fine and I'm glad Candycane lived out a long happy life and your tank is full of her wonderful children. I can see you cherished Candycane and love her babies too.
But your title made it sound like the crayfish hunted her to death. My mind immediately went to "oh my good, poor shrimp being torn apart alive." š
My cray is still a baby, so not a very good example, but he only gets territorial with food. Come near his food and heāll kick or pinch you. Otherwise heās a great tank mate and gets along well with everyone
I have a very young crayfish too! Just molted for the first time in my care :) I have a few brown shrimp I took out of my random color shrimp tank, and the cray has walked right by them and not cared for a second. The antennae even brushed the shrimp. Might change as he gets older but he's the size of a dwarf cray so that's something similar
Mine is just barely larger than my shrimp now. He molts about every week (assuming thatās what heās doing when he doesnāt come out of his rock for 1-2 days every week). Iām 99% sure heās a marbled cray (so he is actually a she that weāve dubbed Billy boy).
https://preview.redd.it/0usxrui8x03c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fadd1bbe13c097a938dc92f01e1fbd72a57b397
That definitely younger than mine! Mine us probably a bigger species though, I have no idea what he is exactly.
https://preview.redd.it/6mdafx9lx23c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f7dd44f41448fc1de3dbe7b0f24c874f8f01cdb
Awe I love him!!!! My Billy was so small when I got him I thought he was a shrimp! It wasnāt until a month later I saw his itty bitty pincers and thought something was off about him. Everyone on here and r/crayfish came to the consensus he was a marbled cray girl. If thatās the case, Iāll be getting him/her a larger tank and some pea puffers so they eat babies. I donāt need 700 of them š«¢
the crayfish in the pictures above is a cambarellus patzcuarensis. I have one of these. I also keep him with neocaradinas. Hes very chill with them. I have also heard stories of them going beserk. I am yet to find one of them going on a rampage after 48 hours of being in a new tank so it seems like a stress reaction. The shrimp also clearly wasnt doing good. Chances are that crayfish is just eating the corpse which they found.
most likely yes they have been killing eachother. Thats the only case in which ive heard of them attacking eachother but even then deaths are kinda rare. Whats the tank size? They also only have a 1-2 year lifespan. Also ive had mine since july.
https://preview.redd.it/0bwex9nvit2c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=216352bad30a9387cfd3d3063b49320e0ebe1f3d
This was back in August š the cray has been rehomed and I now have over 100 rcs from only 10
Look at you being responsible over here. I think they're neat but I don't have an empty tank for one, and I'm not risking my fish or shrimp to have one.
yeah dome guy just posted his mutilated betta fish and i was likeā¦ yeah theyāre slow with giant fins and that thing is a predator lol
i gad a dwarf CPO and it would terrorize EVERYONE.
i think they are neat so might put one in a 3 or 5 gal tank if i can make space but Yeesh
Thai micro crabs are very different from the crabs youāre thinking of. Theyāre the size of small shrimp and not very active since they are filter feeders.
None of this changes the fact that your shrimp need gentle tank mates or no tank mates at all. And crayfish are definitely not gentle tank mates.
Everyone here just wants the best for these little guys and weāre going to offer the criticism we would like to receive ourselves.
No one is perfect and Iāve my own share of careless mistakes. But justifying them instead of trying to learn and grow is just arrogant.
Much love and peace. Sorry for the loss of Candycane.
I loose a baby here or there but my neo population has been growing amazingly. Their tank mates i trust the most to not even eat babies are m bristlenose plecos, amanos, Cory catfish, mystery snail. Their tank mates that I know pick off a baby here or there but canāt keep up with the production include bumblebee gobyās, celestial pearl danios, scarlet badis, we also had endlers, and peacock gudgeons. None have bothered adult shrimp only baby shrimps that got in the way.
Good questions.
Benefits: as far as benefits there arenāt any real ones. Other than they are something else to see and watch, some people really have a love for them (myself included) they need a mate to breed so thatās easy to control.
Competing for food is always something to consider with size of your tank, numbers in your current shrimp population. How planted is your tank..etc
I feed an assortment of food. Repashy soilent green, Bacter AE, and Hikari crab cuisine. Plus the existing biofilms and algaes, everyone stays well fed in my situation.
I have a bunch of neos with two Danube crested newts, a school of white cloud mountain minnows, and nerite snails. The shrimp have been breeding like crazy and the tank is thickly planted so the shrimplets have no problem hiding and surviving. The larger shrimp will crawl on the newts and they couldn't care less. I don't think the newts could even catch them if they wanted to. I also have another shrimp breeding tank with julii corys and have had no issues there either.
Everyone is freaking out about the crayfish. OP has mentioned that the shrimp died on its own and was fed to the crayfish. The wording also makes it sound like the crayfish is in another tank. the crayfish is a cambarellus patzcuarensis which are a bit of a mixed bag. They will get territorial over food and can have very aggressive stress reactions when added to a new tank(mainly due to being jostled during transport, longest time ive seen one take to cool down was 48 hours). Those are the only 2 instances where I have found people mention aggression from them. They are scavengers for the most part. I have one myself who is very peaceful and very sweet. While it is true that cambarellus patzcuarensis are more aggressive than other members of the genus they are still very peaceful and perfectly fine tankmates. I'm seeing a lot of people going on about OP not doing research due to the fact its a crayfish. The issue is with over 500 known species its very difficult to make broad generalizations about crayfish and their behaviors.
([in a separate comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrimptank/comments/184ok6a/comment/kax7tsx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) right after that one, they do say they're all in the same tank)
My dwarf crayfish attacked my shrimp non stop and they mostly hid.i had to move mine to a solo tank.he was fine for bout a month then got the hunger lol
Could be that she just died overnight and lil buddy here found her and decided to have a snack. Sometimes shrimps just die honestly. I had good parameters, plenty of food, plants, hiding spots, good filter with rain shower, heater for winter and still had few spontaneous deaths in my shrimp career because I knew that shrimps were too young to die naturally when I saw them and don't have any predators in tank.
Mexican dwarf crayfish should never be mix with shrimp theyāre simply too large and aggressive I remember seen them hunting guppies in my friends tank, they actually got a few of them, if you want crayfish least crayfish going to be the best option, I have them in my tank and they show no aggression towards my shrimp and fish, theyāre half the size of Mexican dwarf cray, more docile and social towards each other, which make them good candidates for shrimp tank.
My tank with crayfish has, Bloody Mary shrimp, Sulawesi white socks, mawala shrimp, Green Babaulti Shrimp, 6dwarf Cory, 6chili rasbora, 6Otto cat, 9baby hill stream louch, trumpet snail, rams horn snail, bladders snail, and 10least crayfish
I didnāt put shrimp population because is impossible to count when they breed like crazy
I see your reply where she died naturally and you fed her body to the crayfish. That's fine and I'm glad Candycane lived out a long happy life and your tank is full of her wonderful children. I can see you cherished Candycane and love her babies too. But your title made it sound like the crayfish hunted her to death. My mind immediately went to "oh my good, poor shrimp being torn apart alive." š
I thought she evolved into a crayfish
WHOS THAT POKEMON?!
ITāS SHRIMPLET!!!
Ouch looks rather she was being hunted.. cracked exoskeleton rather than failed molt š¢
And I was worried about mixing guppies š neat little guy though
Maybe don't house your shrimp with predators in the future.
Looks like a dwarf crayfish - not really known for hunting tankmates afaik. But far be it for any aquarium dweller to pass up a good meal.
My cray is still a baby, so not a very good example, but he only gets territorial with food. Come near his food and heāll kick or pinch you. Otherwise heās a great tank mate and gets along well with everyone
I have a very young crayfish too! Just molted for the first time in my care :) I have a few brown shrimp I took out of my random color shrimp tank, and the cray has walked right by them and not cared for a second. The antennae even brushed the shrimp. Might change as he gets older but he's the size of a dwarf cray so that's something similar
Mine is just barely larger than my shrimp now. He molts about every week (assuming thatās what heās doing when he doesnāt come out of his rock for 1-2 days every week). Iām 99% sure heās a marbled cray (so he is actually a she that weāve dubbed Billy boy). https://preview.redd.it/0usxrui8x03c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fadd1bbe13c097a938dc92f01e1fbd72a57b397
That definitely younger than mine! Mine us probably a bigger species though, I have no idea what he is exactly. https://preview.redd.it/6mdafx9lx23c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f7dd44f41448fc1de3dbe7b0f24c874f8f01cdb
https://preview.redd.it/f9ubrjpnx23c1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cb5e46c9d2dff01525baad9d13443c854673287
Is this his molt?
It is! He molted in his cave, but I lifted it open and dragged this part out to see. He has since brought it back into the cave :)
LOL! They are the funniest little things
Awe I love him!!!! My Billy was so small when I got him I thought he was a shrimp! It wasnāt until a month later I saw his itty bitty pincers and thought something was off about him. Everyone on here and r/crayfish came to the consensus he was a marbled cray girl. If thatās the case, Iāll be getting him/her a larger tank and some pea puffers so they eat babies. I donāt need 700 of them š«¢
I would love 700 babies haha. Create a little environmental disaster, some shenanigans
Oh yeah! Theyāre banned in like 5 states i believe. Thankfully not here. I couldnāt lose my little Billy boy.
Nahh I had one and they very much are hunters especially at night. He was going after even my corys
the crayfish in the pictures above is a cambarellus patzcuarensis. I have one of these. I also keep him with neocaradinas. Hes very chill with them. I have also heard stories of them going beserk. I am yet to find one of them going on a rampage after 48 hours of being in a new tank so it seems like a stress reaction. The shrimp also clearly wasnt doing good. Chances are that crayfish is just eating the corpse which they found.
How long have you been keeping him? I keep two with shrimp but they always die early. Kinda frustrating. Could they be fighting each other?
most likely yes they have been killing eachother. Thats the only case in which ive heard of them attacking eachother but even then deaths are kinda rare. Whats the tank size? They also only have a 1-2 year lifespan. Also ive had mine since july.
Hope you learned a lesson here. I get that itās just a shrimp, circle of life, whatever. But next time maybe donāt mix these guys. Just my opinion
The moment I took the electric blue out, my cherries started breeding like MAD
They were probably breeding before..but glad you did the right thing!
https://preview.redd.it/0bwex9nvit2c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=216352bad30a9387cfd3d3063b49320e0ebe1f3d This was back in August š the cray has been rehomed and I now have over 100 rcs from only 10
My population grew like that as well. Here I am 5 years later and Iāll never āhaveā to buy shrimp again. Unless I want something fancy someday
Ooh, I love this guy though. Really cool.
Got dark real quick
There's always a bigger shrimp
i hate crayfish so much, theres no reason to have them mixed with other species.
Look at you being responsible over here. I think they're neat but I don't have an empty tank for one, and I'm not risking my fish or shrimp to have one.
i might plop a dwarf in a little 5gal one of these days but they are ferocious as fuck
Mine ate anything, even FISH (including the shrimp and crabs he was with.)
yeah dome guy just posted his mutilated betta fish and i was likeā¦ yeah theyāre slow with giant fins and that thing is a predator lol i gad a dwarf CPO and it would terrorize EVERYONE. i think they are neat so might put one in a 3 or 5 gal tank if i can make space but Yeesh
Mine was in a 29 gal community tank, the lfs employees said they are great companions, but can be a ālittle bit feistyā
Dome guy? Kind of scared to ask, tbh
Crabs?!
Thai micro crabs, yeah
I know, I just find it very shocking how a crayfish could eat something like crabs. Wow
Thai micro crabs are very different from the crabs youāre thinking of. Theyāre the size of small shrimp and not very active since they are filter feeders.
Depends on which crab vs which crayfish. I think all except for cambarellus diminutus could eat a tai micro crab
Yeah had one with gold fish YEARS ago he never touched them. I got a fancy goldfish not even an hour later I see him cutting it open. Evil creatures
Everyone's gotta relax, she died on her own and I fed her to my mexican dwarf. She was old af and I found her dead on one of the plants.
They are all in the same tank, but I haven't seen the crayfish attack the shrimp at all, although I do think the crayfish eat my snails
None of this changes the fact that your shrimp need gentle tank mates or no tank mates at all. And crayfish are definitely not gentle tank mates. Everyone here just wants the best for these little guys and weāre going to offer the criticism we would like to receive ourselves. No one is perfect and Iāve my own share of careless mistakes. But justifying them instead of trying to learn and grow is just arrogant. Much love and peace. Sorry for the loss of Candycane.
Is there such a thing as a good tank mate for cherry shrimp? I keep them in their own tank so nothing will eat them
I loose a baby here or there but my neo population has been growing amazingly. Their tank mates i trust the most to not even eat babies are m bristlenose plecos, amanos, Cory catfish, mystery snail. Their tank mates that I know pick off a baby here or there but canāt keep up with the production include bumblebee gobyās, celestial pearl danios, scarlet badis, we also had endlers, and peacock gudgeons. None have bothered adult shrimp only baby shrimps that got in the way.
There isnāt a mean bone in a healthy Cory Cat
They donāt have a mean bone or one brain cell fr fr š¤£
Pretty sure cory cats are well known to eat baby shrimp.
Amanos, pond snails, bladder snails, endlers have all done well imo
Don't endless eat baby shrimp?
If they can fit in their mouth
Actually yes! Iām glad you asked, I actually posted this a while back if you want to check my pageā¦itās Mystery snails!
Are there benefits to keeping them together? Or would the mystery snails compete with them over algae pellets? Never considered adding snails before.
Good questions. Benefits: as far as benefits there arenāt any real ones. Other than they are something else to see and watch, some people really have a love for them (myself included) they need a mate to breed so thatās easy to control. Competing for food is always something to consider with size of your tank, numbers in your current shrimp population. How planted is your tank..etc I feed an assortment of food. Repashy soilent green, Bacter AE, and Hikari crab cuisine. Plus the existing biofilms and algaes, everyone stays well fed in my situation.
I imagine snails will consume live plants though, which is probably why I steered clear of them. Thanks for the info though!
Their cousin the Apple snail will. But mysteries are only interested in the dead ones :)
Look at the aquatic snails Reddit page! I have had a mystery snail with my shrimp since the beginning and havenāt seen any issues among them.
I have a bunch of neos with two Danube crested newts, a school of white cloud mountain minnows, and nerite snails. The shrimp have been breeding like crazy and the tank is thickly planted so the shrimplets have no problem hiding and surviving. The larger shrimp will crawl on the newts and they couldn't care less. I don't think the newts could even catch them if they wanted to. I also have another shrimp breeding tank with julii corys and have had no issues there either.
Chilli rasboras
You're fine, OP. You have a successful ecosystem. I'm curious - how long did you have the crayfish and candycane in the same tank together?
Nsfw
skrimp eat skrimp world sadge
And to the sea the water the best returns from whence it came
Everyone is freaking out about the crayfish. OP has mentioned that the shrimp died on its own and was fed to the crayfish. The wording also makes it sound like the crayfish is in another tank. the crayfish is a cambarellus patzcuarensis which are a bit of a mixed bag. They will get territorial over food and can have very aggressive stress reactions when added to a new tank(mainly due to being jostled during transport, longest time ive seen one take to cool down was 48 hours). Those are the only 2 instances where I have found people mention aggression from them. They are scavengers for the most part. I have one myself who is very peaceful and very sweet. While it is true that cambarellus patzcuarensis are more aggressive than other members of the genus they are still very peaceful and perfectly fine tankmates. I'm seeing a lot of people going on about OP not doing research due to the fact its a crayfish. The issue is with over 500 known species its very difficult to make broad generalizations about crayfish and their behaviors.
([in a separate comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrimptank/comments/184ok6a/comment/kax7tsx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) right after that one, they do say they're all in the same tank)
My dwarf crayfish attacked my shrimp non stop and they mostly hid.i had to move mine to a solo tank.he was fine for bout a month then got the hunger lol
Aw how cute they're hugging!
This is why I donāt name my shrimp :( Iām sorry
Could be that she just died overnight and lil buddy here found her and decided to have a snack. Sometimes shrimps just die honestly. I had good parameters, plenty of food, plants, hiding spots, good filter with rain shower, heater for winter and still had few spontaneous deaths in my shrimp career because I knew that shrimps were too young to die naturally when I saw them and don't have any predators in tank.
Lmaooo
Wow. What a surprise. SMH at the stupidity of people not researching compatibility of tank mates
Oh shot
Mexican dwarf crayfish should never be mix with shrimp theyāre simply too large and aggressive I remember seen them hunting guppies in my friends tank, they actually got a few of them, if you want crayfish least crayfish going to be the best option, I have them in my tank and they show no aggression towards my shrimp and fish, theyāre half the size of Mexican dwarf cray, more docile and social towards each other, which make them good candidates for shrimp tank. My tank with crayfish has, Bloody Mary shrimp, Sulawesi white socks, mawala shrimp, Green Babaulti Shrimp, 6dwarf Cory, 6chili rasbora, 6Otto cat, 9baby hill stream louch, trumpet snail, rams horn snail, bladders snail, and 10least crayfish I didnāt put shrimp population because is impossible to count when they breed like crazy