# Fan Shrimp?



## merrycat (Mar 29, 2014)

Has anyone kept fan shrimp before? How hard it it to make sure they have enough to eat? Do you have to target feed them with other food, or can they really get enough from the filter overflow? I've heard that they can live up to five years, but that it's hard to keep them alive. Do they need to be supplemented with live food like green water, infusoria, daphnia, etc?

If all goes well, I'd like to try my hand at breeding them, but that's waaay down the line when I can have a brackish setup. To start with I'd just like them to live and thrive.

Also, can they be kept with cherry shrimp? I'm not worried about the fans hurthing the cherries. I'm more worried about the cherries out competing the fans for food.


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

You could try asking RussellTheShihTzu, an absolute font of info on shrimp


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

From what I know they are hard to keep because it's hard to keep them fed. They typically need to be in large tanks for there to be enough food. You can tell if they are not getting enough food if they are looking through to substrate for food. As far as I know you don't need to target feed them, just make sure there is enough food in the water, so you would need powder foods as stuff like that.

Yes they can be kept with anything that isn't big enough to eat them. They are 100% peaceful and can't really hurt anything with their fans. I would think that the cherry shrimp wouldn't be eating the same foods, so out competing is not an issue.


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## Bessie (Sep 13, 2014)

Great choice in shrimp! 

I kept fan shrimps in a busy community tank with several other shrimp species for several years, no issues. They really are a wonderful shrimp to watch in the aquarium :wave:

You will need nice gentle filter flow for them, in my experience one that points the flow diagonally from the top corner of the aquarium to the opposite bottom corner is your best chance of success for natural feeding as opposed to target feeding. They will choose a feeding platform under the flow to sit and fan out (as long as it's gentle enough) so various pieces of rocks and wood around this area at various heights is a must, so they can choose their ideal place. ;-)

Your cherry shrimp will not outcompete them for food, as the two species feed in different ways to fill a niche. Your cherrys are very active scavengers and tend to potter about scavenging around objects (substrate, plants, décor), whereas the fans are more sedentary and must have that water current bringing them the food. Mine each found their spots they liked and kept those exact spots for years - and would wait there of a morning for the feeding. Lovely :grin: 

Obviously this means if you move the décor about when they have found their little spots this will upset them, and they'll have to find another. Their anatomy means they are adapted for feeding on small particles in the water, but mine had no issues whatsoever on the days when their little fans caught a big flake or bloodworm, I imagine those days were very good days in fan shrimp world :-D If you have any trouble with them getting enough food, you could definitely use a small pipette to target feed & help them along. 

Good luck with your shrimps!


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