Betta and Ghost Shrimp

[GamerGuy]

Now that Ray, my Crowntail Betta, has my 10 gallon tank nice and cycled; I decided to see if he would get along with other living things in his tank. As it turns out, he does fairly well so far... only having eaten 1 out of the 9 ghost shrimp we had purchased. We had put them into the tank at night; and sure enough the following morning we caught him with a mouth full of shrimp, trying to finish off the antennae. It's day two now and aside from pestering the poor shrimp, he doesn't seem intent on actually eating any more of them.

I suppose I should ask: Is Ray going to be alright? He looks and is acting fine, but his stomach looks HUGE after that oversized meal. He's still been hungry, and if I try to skip any feedings he starts aggressively chasing the shrimp again. >_<;;

Pictures:





All poor quality phone pictures of a shrimp standing on the heater, an old picture of Ray with his onion, and a new picture of Ray chasing off the ghost shrimp I was trying to photograph while it was still on the onion.

[Kytkattin]

Chances are he will never be able to live with the shrimp. It sounds like he is having too much fun hunting them!

That being said, how much cover do you have in the tank? If the shrimp are going to be able to live in there, they are going to need a ton of hiding places. Be it cover from plants, or something else. It might work if you have enough hiding places...

[EvilVOG]

just picked up a bunch of ghost shrimp myself, most went into my 20 gallon, where i think my giant pk female has been hunting them since, or at least i think so... she's looking around at the bottom like she lost something... there's lots of places to hide tho. And they only cost me $1 for 8... and then there was a few more than 8 in there, so if it makes her happy...

[GamerGuy]

My plants haven't quite grown to the point that they could be viable hiding places, but I did purchase a fake barnacle-cluster ornament that has lots of openings too small for Ray to fit in. Unfortunately, the shrimp don't seem interested in hiding; preferring instead to frolic about in the open and rest conspicuously on Ray's favorite ornaments. I'm not sure he has any interest in eating them anymore... At least he hasn't tried, and I still have all 8 remaining shrimp.

[EvilVOG]

i still see the shrimp in all my tanks so my giant pk girl hasn't managed to kill them all. Thinking she was just really hungry and was searching the bottom for food

[Kytkattin]

That gives me hope! My shrimp have been floating in a cup since yesterday. I am too nervous to put them in yet...