Is it possible to keep freshwater shrimp with the dreaded Clown Botia in the aquarium? Check out what we discovered on this subject!
I know! You want a very diverse aquarium, I understand that! It’s completely understandable, as no one wants to be looking at the same fish every day!
Having a variety of fish is always welcome, even more so if you have an aquarium with loaches who spend most of their time in hiding.
So naturally you start looking for some compatible companions, and God knows why you had the brilliant idea of putting the famous freshwater shrimp in your aquarium. Is it a good idea? Without further ado, let’s get straight to the point!
In case you don’t know, the Clown Loache is an excellent eater snails and, because of this, the concept also applies to the freshwater shrimp.
Loaches will turn your shrimp upside down as if they were snails and eat them with extreme ease. O Red Cherry Shrimpfor example, cannot resist the powerful suction of the fish and its intentions.
In addition, the Clown Botia is a fish that can reach up to 30 centimeters in length. So your 3 centimeter maximum shrimp won’t have much luck around a fish this size.
In short, any type of invertebrate that you put in an aquarium with the Clown Botia, will probably become food. Therefore, I recommend that you avoid this combination!
1. I’m insistent! Is there any way to keep them together?
If you’re the pushy type and want to keep the shrimp with the Clown Botia anyway, here are some tips that can help you along the way. Just remember that you are ready to take risks and that you could lose all your shrimp in no time.
1.1 Use lots of plants
At live plants are key to improving your shrimp’s chance of survival. O Red Cherry Shrimp, for example, loves to live in densely planted environments with a good variety of hiding places. These tiny crustaceans use plants as hiding places to avoid larger predators that see them as food.
The Clown Botia is a big, clumsy fish, so it won’t try to squeeze through plants to reach your shrimp. In fact, he will try to avoid this type of area, providing his shrimp with a reasonably quiet place to live and breed.
1.2 Create hiding places
O Clown Loache likes hiding places such as rock structures, logs and any other element that can fulfill this purpose. But shrimp need them even more!
Then, create a habitat with rocks, logs and any kind of decorations that can create countless hiding places. Fortunately, shrimp can fit in places and crevices where loaches cannot. Therefore, making this type of combination is very likely that the shrimp in your aquarium will have a survival.
1.3 Keep Clown Botia well fed
It is very difficult to keep hunting when you have a full belly. Well-fed loaches are more likely to be lazy and laid-back compared to their hungry counterparts.
Feed them a good, balanced diet, and provide them with at least 2 meals a day. Your loaches prefer live food, but are classified as omnivores, so they are very adaptable and versatile in that sense.
I recommend that you feed your Clown Botia with live foods such as bloodworms, larvae and brine shrimp. Remember that you can even provide some shrimp to meet their nutritional needs. Anything goes, as long as you can divert their attention a little from the shrimp that are already living in the aquarium.
1.4 Have a large aquarium
The Clown Botia prefers to live in groups. This alone complicates the survival of shrimp in your aquarium even more.
If you want to keep them together, try to add them in aquariums with at least 380 liters. That way, the fish will have room to swim and their shrimp to hide.
Conclusion
O Shrimp it’s the Clown Loache are at different levels in the food chain. It is never advisable to pair predators with their natural prey, but it can be done; at least in this case.