The Puffer Forum

Are Amano shrimps compatible with DP's?

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the puffer. But DPs are very territorial and aggressive for their small size and will attack anything and everything they feel is either lunch or invading. Whether they can actually do damage depends on their relative size, but either way, they would eventually pester them to death, or scare them enough to jump out of the tank.

Best bet would be to try with some cheap Ghost shrimp before sacrificing a good Amano shrimp.

Would it make a difference by adding the amano before the DP's?

Add the amano first. most dp's will completely ignore shrimp.

OK thanks

They will ignore them if they
are too big to be considered
as food

They won't ignore them, trust me. Even if you add them first it won't make a difference, even if they are tiny and the shrimp are huge, they won't ignore them.

Expect them to get nipped at.

Mine pulled the legs off of shrimp much larger than themselves. Size doesn't matter to DPs in the least.

So i take that applies to all shrimp?

Yeah it applies to all shrimp. Some dps won't bother a shrimp though. You might want to get a ghost shrimp and see how your puffer treats it.

Every Dp is different. I started with 5 amanos and after a year I have 1 left.

OK thanks for the replies.

mine devour shrimp.

I have 4 dps in a 15 with 2 amano shrimp and 3 ghost shrimp. Two of the dp's have been ignoring the shrimp for nearly a year, and two for about a month. I've had good luck so far, but a year is not forever, I always count the shrimp carefully so I can save the rest if one is turned on.

I haven't tried anything other than ghosties with mine, but they have never bothered them. I was actually hoping they would eat them as that made a nice source of food for when we go away, but alas, all the ghost shrimp lived til they died a natural death.