# Freshwater Amphipods Prey On My Shrimps?



## Brendle (Feb 18, 2014)

Howdy to all the lovely forum members! Recently from a fish auction in Ajax I bought a little colony of freshwater amphipods. I was very excited as I have a penchant for critters in my aquariums. I thought I was a real genius and would just dump them into my shrimp (and snail) tank. (I have yet to dump them in there, they're in a mason jar with plants currently) I was informed by a gentleman at the auction that they would prey upon any baby shrimps I had in the tank, effectively removing any possibility of future shrimp generations. I value the possibility of them breeding over having a cool amphipod population in the tank. However I have googled my fingers to the bone and have not found any articles that support that claim. I have also noticed that the amphipods seem to not be cannibalizing their own species. Does anyone have any words of wisdom or links to any articles that could shine light on this for me? Any personal experiences with amphipods preying on any baby shrimp or perhaps baby fishes?? 

Thanks in advance ya'll!

Brendle


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

If you are speaking of gammarus shrimp (I saw a bag of them in the auction), they are primarily vegetarian. I suppose there might be a possibility of them preying on shrimp. I had a colony for a number of years, and they thrived on thread algae. I used them to clean plants of algae as well.


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## Brendle (Feb 18, 2014)

Yeah that looks like them - thanks for the reply! I'll dump them in the tank then and keep them well fed!


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

My experience with them is that they are voracious eater. They devour thread algae, and when using them to clean plants, they would start on the plants when the algae was gone. With lots of food they multiply rapidly.


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