shrimp as male betta tank mates?

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Suzisuzisuzi

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2019
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Now that my betta is comfy in a 3.5 gal tank I've been thinking of adding tank mates. I realize that the tank really isn't going to hold much more than a single betta by the gallon per inch rule of thumb but my local petco suggested shrimp. So I'm running it past you folks here.

Would one or two shrimp (probably cherry shrimp, or I may splurge on a blue rainbow shrimp) be adequately housed in a 3.5 gallon filtered tank with a male betta?

If so what would be the best feeding approach? The petco employee was pretty firm that the shrimp would be just fine on any leftovers the betta leaves behind... I'm extremely skeptical. I feed him pretty much by hand these days, dropping his food one pellet at a time and there *IS* no leftover food to my awareness. Is the pet store right and there'd be enough random leavings for the shrimp or do I need another solution?
 
Any particular food that's best for shrimp or would the NLS community formula I feed my "big" tank at home be good?
 
Depends on the betta. Some live peacefully with shrimp while others devour them. You may want to try some of the larger variety like amano or some larger ghost shrimp that you can buy as feeders at most lfs. Test it out and see how it goes before splurging on a higher dollar one.

As far as feeding, I do not think any wet pet should just be made to survive on leftovers. They all have their own dietary needs. The idea of distracting the betta on one side and dropping a pellet in on the other is a good one. Also, shrimp need calcium so something like crab cuisine would be good. I feed mine snail jello that I make up for the snails as well.
 
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tfreema said:
As far as feeding, I do not think any wet pet should just be made to survive on leftovers. They all have their own dietary needs. The idea of distracting the betta on one side and dropping a pellet in on the other is a good one. Also, shrimp need calcium so something like crab cuisine would be good. I feed mine snail jello that I make up for the snails as well.
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Do you have any specific shrimp foods you'd recommend?

Distracting the betta should be pretty easy. He knows when it's feeding time and is very attentive to chasing his floating food in the mild surface current the filter makes.
 
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Hi, my kids have 2 Amano shrimp with their beta. I have never seen the beta attack the shrimps. We break up sinking pellets or algae wafers.

I can say that shrimp has gone missing and we never found out what happened. The only thing I can think of is when the shrimps molting, they aren't protected and become a feast. or they crawl out, but I doubt that.
 
Due to tank size and the potential for unstable parameters i’d probably go with a snail of some sort over a shrimp...

Shrimp tend to like very stable parameters and cooler temps for the most part, so imo maybe a bit hit or miss...
 
"Glassgarten shrimp dinner" is very nice food for shrimps. I used that for years. Denerele has a great line of shrimp foods.

As a shrimp keeper and according to my experience, my final thoughts are there is no fish which is safe to put with shrimp not even otto catfish which is said to be shrimp safe. Shrimp frys are so tiny that even if fish don't want to eat they can accidentally swallow it.

Your betta may ignore your shrimps when the lights are on but once the lights are off its a very scary world for shrimps. Also any frys you have will be eaten by betta for sure. I strongly advise to keep shrimp own their own. They also prefer cold water.

Amano shrimp will work out with a betta because they are big but cherry shrimps may be hunted at nights.
 
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