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blue velvet shrimp?

18K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  Aluka 
#1 ·
hi everyone! i have a halfmoon betta in a fluval edge with no other fish so far. i have lots of plants that would be a safe place just for the shrimp in case the betta has any ideas. anyone that can answer this or have any expirience with these two?:)
 
#2 ·
I dont have blue velvet shrimp, but I do have ghosties in my sorority tank.

Sometimes, shrimp just become an expensive snack for your betta. So my suggestion is to go to petsmart and get a couple of ghosties (like $0.23) to see how he reacts. Then, if/when he doesnt react to them, order your blue velvets and add them.
 
#4 ·
Ghosts are harder for bettas to see and catch. I know for a fact mine would chase a blue shrimp!! (which is why I set up a separate shrimp tank for RCS. If babies grow and I need to move them then I can put them in with the bettas to either thrive or be eaten).

I think it really depends on the nature of your fish. With a lot of ground cover like small pots and IAL leaf matter maybe the shrimp can hide effectively.
 
#9 ·
+1

FYI, Fred used to ignore the 2 amanos. Then one day he decide they were fun to "play catch" with. Thankfully I had a driftwood that the shrimps could hide out. They did not come back out until Fred left the tank for the QT tank.

So yes, even with a lighter color Amano, they are still vulnerable. I cannot imagine having a colorful shrimp in the same tank....
 
#5 ·
I purchased 15 ghosties for $0.36 each and they were all eaten the same night ._.
 
#11 ·
Surely the blue velvets aren't 1 cent each? That comment must have been directed at the ghost shrimp ...

If the blue velvets are 1 cent each, can someone buy and ship me about 30 of them? lol ... seriously.
 
#12 ·
^^ What he said.

Also, don't be so sure that even a densely planted tank is enough. I've had females dive into wads of moss to chase after shrimp. The ghosts, give a half hearted chase. Cherries. Well I can still see Aphrodite with the front half of a still alive female cherry in her mouth.

My advice is... shrimp + betta well, it's a craps shoot if the shrimp will live.
 
#13 ·
Then again, some bettas are perfectly fine with shrimp. My boy is very content to ignore his red cherries (different coloured cousin of the blue velvet shrimp). He will swim up to them and continue on or swim by and brush them with his fins and it neither bothers him, nor the shrimp... they just continue eating whatever it was that they were eating before. I have these bright little guys in a very heavily planted 5 gal NPT with lots of cover, small holes (too small for bettas) and the cover is at all levels of the tank. I also added the cherries to the tank, and didn't add the betta for about 48 hrs and I already had a pretty good idea of how he'd react: I had found a pond snail in his temp bowl... he sniffed it, it moved, he swam off very quickly to his cave and I didn't see him for an hour or so after that. LMAO, my betta's a wuss.

As I said in another thread, bettas are like dogs when it comes to tank mates: some will do just fine with a cat, some will chase it and harass it, some will be terrorized by the cat. It all depends on the dog. Same with bettas and shrimp: some will be fine, some will harass or even kill and/or eat them and some will be stressed out by their presence. You won't know what your betta will be like until you try. But you have to be prepared for all outcomes in case things go south, so to speak :)
 
#14 ·
yea it all depends on the betta, i would test it with cheaper shrimps first to save you some money. Watch them for a while. MY girls ignored my ghost shrimps for like 2 months, then one day decided to hunt down everyone of them. Guess the girls were just waiting for them to grow big enough to be snack time.
 
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