# Shrimp attacking betta??



## allied123 (Dec 11, 2014)

I've had my betta for about 2 months now and have around 6-8 ghost shrimp that have been in the 5.5 gallon tank for around 3 months. I never noticed an issue until about a week or so ago when I went to feed the betta and the ghost shrimp started trying to fight him for his food. I thought this was incredibly strange and started feeding the shrimp a little more and a little more often. Tonight however I noticed my betta freaking out and saw a shrimp holding on to his tail! I'm beyond furious and actually had to reach in and scare the shrimp off him. 

I'm going to remove the shrimp to another tank (my axolotls tank) to face their doom but I'm very shocked and annoyed as I thought these guys were going to be the easiest and best tank mates. Has anyone seen this type of behavior before?


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

There are Ghost Shrimp and there are Macro Shrimp. They look exactly alike when they are young. It is only when they are older that the differences appear. Unfortunately, many suppliers send Macro along with the Ghost Shrimp and an unsuspecting buyer winds up like you.

Do all the the shrimp look alike? Macro get bigger than Ghosties and are aggressive. They also have larger claws.


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## allied123 (Dec 11, 2014)

They're all exactly the same, I'm 99% sure they're all ghost shrimp, the largest were only about an inch maybe (edit: though I'm bad at guessing sizes they are all certainly less than an inch and a half, some were berried when I bought them, assuming that means they were full grown?), no claws or anything like that which is another reason I'm so surprised and upset. They were doing so well and breeding and the babies were surviving and everything.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I've had ghost shrimp steal food and latch onto tails before, too. It didn't seem overly violent, just like it was grooming a bad spot from the tail, and the fish started moving. I'm impressed that yours were breeding and everything. Maybe they're starting to get overpopulated from the successful breeding. Just about everything gets grumpy if it's too crowded.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Good point on the overpopulation angle. Thanks!


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

No problem. If they keep breeding, they could be a nice live food supplement for the other tank.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I keep telling people no matter how long you've been in this hobby you learn/see something new every day.


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## allied123 (Dec 11, 2014)

Sorry to just be getting back to this but I do think you're right about the overpopulation. I took 4 out to feed to my other tank and they were gone by morning lol. I left the tiniest baby ones in (I don't exactly want them breeding). Hopefully this will solve the problem! I really appreciate the input guys!


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