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Do African Dwarf Frogs Eat The Shrimp In Their Aquarium?

Even though African dwarf frogs have seen a steady increase in their popularity as pets recently, they are still a relatively niche pet but they do definitely seem to be seeing a boom in their popularity right now.

As with all pets that see a boom in their popularity, we have noticed a range of different questions about caring for an African dwarf frog recently with many people asking if African dwarf frogs will eat the shrimp in their aquarium tank or not.

The majority of African dwarf frogs will at least try to eat any shrimp that they find in their aquarium but they are not very food hunters so even if your African dwarf frog does try to eat the shrimp in its tank, there is a high chance of the shrimp getting away without issue.

You can reduce the chances of your African dwarf frog trying to eat the shrimp in its tank by adding plants and cover for the shrimp to hide in.

Both Java Moss and Java Fern can be great options to provide shrimp with cover to hide in to reduce the chances of your African dwarf frog trying to eat the shrimp.

For the most part though, it is unlikely that your African dwarf frog will be able to eat enough of the shrimp in its tank to cause a population decrease due to how quickly some shrimp species can reproduce.

Do African Dwarf Frogs Eat Ghost Shrimp?

Ghost shrimp are one of the better shrimp options to keep in your tank with an African dwarf frog due to their translucent body making it difficult for your African dwarf frog to see them.

This coupled with the fact that African dwarf frogs really are bad hunters drastically reduces the chances of your African dwarf frog being able to see, hunt, and eat your ghost shrimp.

If you do want to keep shrimp in the same aquarium tank as your African dwarf frog then ghost shrimp are one of the best options available as they have a high survival rate.

You have to keep in mind though, you will always have a risk of your frog being able to eat the shrimp in its tank, even if you do go with ghost shrimp as your frog may get lucky.

As we mentioned above, adding various types of cover to the tank to protect your shrimp further increases the chances that your ghost shrimp will be fine in the same tank as an African dwarf frog though.

Although it is still relatively rare to keep ghost shrimp and an African dwarf frog in the same tank, it is possible and a couple of people do it and share their experiences on social media.

Will African Dwarf Frogs Eat Cherry Shrimp?

Cherry shrimp are one of the worst species of shrimp to keep in the same aquarium as your pet African dwarf frog due to their bright color giving them away and making them a more obvious target for your African dwarf frog to try and eat.

Even if you do add live plants to the tank to offer some cover for your shrimp, cherry shrimp still stand out increasing the amount of attention that they will get from your African dwarf frog.

Even with your African dwarf frog being a poor hunter and often totally missing its strikes, eventually, it will land and manage to catch and eat your cherry shrimp.

This will usually turn your cherry shrimp into a food source for your African dwarf frog with your pet frog being able to eat them at a faster pace than they can be replaced by natural breeding within your tank.

With there being a number of rare colored cherry shrimp on the market now, the last thing that you want to do is pay over the odds for a rare cherry shrimp only for it to become a snack for your African dwarf frog to eat.

Due to this, we would usually recommend that you avoid cherry shrimp in the tank with an African dwarf frog if possible as there are much better options available that will eat your algae and detritus in the tank without being such an obvious target for your African dwarf frog to try and eat.

Will African Dwarf Frogs Eat Amano Shrimp?

Amano shrimp can work in a tank with a African dwarf frog and have a lower risk of becoming food for your African dwarf frog than the brighter colored shrimp such as cherry shrimp or neon yellow shrimp.

Still, amano shrimp do tend to stick out a little more than ghost shrimp so they do have a slightly higher chance of catching the attention of your pet African dwarf frog and ending up as food.

If you are not able to find any ghost shrimp for sale in your area but want to add shrimp to your African dwarf frog’s tank then amano shrimp are probably the only other shrimp species that we would say can work.

They are essentially a middle ground of all the shrimps due to being more difficult to see than some of the other species while still being able to eat algae and detritus.

That said though, your African dwarf frog will probably manage to catch a number of them still but their natural breeding rate in your tank may be high enough to replace the amano shrimp that are eaten by your African dwarf frog.

Adding plants and other sources of cover to the aquarium will be able to help reduce the chances of them being turned into food though so consider some tank decorations if possible.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over if African dwarf frogs eat shrimp or not to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand the various advantages and disadvantages of the more commonly kept shrimp species in aquariums. No matter what type of shrimp you go with, your African dwarf frog will probably try to eat them but thankfully, African dwarf frogs really are bad hunters with some struggling to even eat their own food when its on the substrate stationary so it will miss the shrimp if they are moving most of the time.