We found out that 2 of our 6 amano shrimp were actually girls once they berried today, and now we’re worried about our new betta, Scar. He gets along with our shrimp, but his hunger is unrivaled … we once dropped too many frozen bloodworms by accident and he ate. every. single. one. belly swelled up like crazy I didn’t think he would make it. he’s also stolen shrimp pellets if we drop them in open areas. We’re worried that once the eggs are released, Scar will eat them all and explode, but how likely is that? Should we remove and give away our girls? We have a lot of plants for the babies to hide under (3rd pic) but it’s our first time fishkeeping (started in November 2025) and we’re not sure what to do…
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1r8r4i6
Posted by daixara
6 Comments
Amano shrimp are notoriously hard to breed so to answer your question, probably do nothing.
They require brackish water and even my LFS can’t even breed them. I’ve mistakenly thought I bred them but alas they were neocaridina shrimplets and not amano babies.
If you move them they’re likely to drop their eggs. He’ll eat his fill but they keep the eggs until they hatch and you’ll see little shrimplets. Also seconding that these don’t look like amano shrimp, they look like wild type neos
These are amano shrimp, not neocaridinia. Babies wont survive in fresh water so best thing to do is nothing at all.
Sorry everyone, I didn’t realize I couldn’t edit posts with images, but I read that the larva first hatch in freshwater and could survive for a few days before dying out. We’re mainly worried about those few days that our betta would spend possibly hunting for all of them, would it still be safe for our betta* to keep both shrimp? thank you in advance!!
If you wanted to keep the babies, you need to transfer them to saltwater, and when they’re fully formed shrimp back to freshwater
The larvae are tiny. Like reaaallllllly tiny. They aren’t shrimplets when they hatch, they are just these super thin ‘ ! ‘ shapes that drift toward light and will die in about 3 days. You could have 10 amanos release larva the same day and your betta could hunt them nonstop and still not manage to eat enough to cause issues because they are just so damn small.
Sometimes they drop the whole clutch early as just a blob of eggs and that would be a more sizable snack, but it would probably take more than one to cause issues. If you notice eggs suddenly disappear, just skip feeding the betta that night and I really can’t imagine you’d ever have issues