cherry shrimp compatibility

[Nyx]

We recently put a bunch of rili (cherry) shrimp in our tank and were things of adding some Maccullochi rainbows. Are these or any other smaller rainbows safe with the shrimp? I don't want to serve up the shrimp as a smorgasbord for any fish.

[Jeff1192]

Basically if the adults fit in the fishes mouth they'll get eaten. I have kept cherries with all sorts of sizes of fish. You just have to realize that if you don't have a ton of hiding spaces most of the babies will be eaten. My tanks are always heavily planted so I get a decent survival rate. But if the fish is big enough to eat the adults easily then it's probably only a matter of time before they all get picked off.

Jeff

[Nyx]

Thanks. We've been keeping several shrimp types with Endler's livebearers, oto cats, dwarf chain botias and khuli loaches with no problem for a long time but we recently did a big tank overhaul, clearing out a lot of the plants, and we restocked with only rili shrimp. We also wanted to add something a little bit bigger than the Endlers to the tank and weren't sure as to whether or not the shrimp would get eaten.