Skip to Content

How To Keep Celestial Pearl Danios And Shrimp In The Same Tank!

The popularity of keeping shrimp within the fish keeping hobby is sky rocketing right now and its showing no signs of slowing down.

Not only are shrimp an excellent addition to a community tank as members of the tanks clean up crew but keeping dedicated shrimp only tanks is very popular, especially with the colorful neocaridina shrimp species such as cherry shrimp, neon yellows, and blue dreams.

In addition to that, celestial pearl danios are also becoming increasingly popular within the fish keeping hobby too with more and more people keeping celestial pearl danios in their tank too.

Due to this, we wanted to go over our thoughts on keeping celestial pearl danios and shrimp in the same aquarium as each other to try and help any of our readers who are considering this setup.

Will Celestial Pearl Danios Eat Shrimp?

Most species of shrimp are too large when fully grown for a celestial pearl danio to eat them due to the small size of celestial pearl danios allowing you to keep shrimp and celestial pearl danios in the same tank without issue.

Even the smaller neocaridina shrimp species are often way too large for a celestial pearl danio to eat them when the shrimp are fully grown but some celestial pearl danio may pick at your shrimp but this really is rare.

Just because a celestial pearl danio is not able to eat an adult shrimp, they are not suitable for all types of tank containing shrimp as celestial pearl danios will eat shrimpletts (baby shrimp) in huge numbers.

If you are wanting to breed your shrimp in your tank then going with a shrimp only tank that is free from predators is definitely the better option.

You can also add a number of shrimp hides to your aquarium with your celestial pearl danios such as shrimp tubes or ceramic shrimp hides to offer the baby shrimp somewhere to hide but your celestial pearl danios will still eat large numbers of them.

Will Shrimp Eat Celestial Pearl Danios?

It is very unlikley that your shrimp will eat a healthy celestial pearl danio but in some situations, shrimp have been known to start to eat a sick fish that is laying on the substrate and unable to move.

On top of that, shrimp will often eat the eggs of your celestial pearl danios. Similar to what we covered above with the celestial pearl danios eating baby shrimp, if you are looking to breed your celestial pearl danio then a dedicated breeding tank without shrimp will usually be a better option.

What Size Tank Do You Need For Celestial Pearl Danios With Shrimp?

You have to realise that you should be keeping a minimum of six celestial pearl danios in your tank meaning that you have to go with a minimum tank size of 10 gallons.

If you are on a budget then there are some excellent, cheap 10 gallon aquariums on the market that you are able to use for your celestial pearl danio and shrimp.

As with most species of fish though, the larger their tank the better the fish will do so a 20 gallon or even 30 gallon tank can be a better option if your budget and available space permit it.

The larger size allows you to keep more celestial pearl danios in your tank as well as more shrimp too.

If you are brand new to the aquarium keeping hobby and are on a tight budget then avoiding the celestial pearl danios for now may be a good choice and a shrimp tank can be a great way to get into the hobby and build your initial skills up.

We have dedicated guides on keeping a 1 gallon shrimp tank and keeping a 2 gallon shimp tank that should be able to help you. Both are very cheap setups that work well as stand alone shrimp tanks or as shrimp breeding tanks.

What Type Of Shrimp Can You Keep With Celestial Pearl Danios?

As we briefly touched on above, most species of shrimp are too large for a celestial pearl danio to eat when fully grown so you have a lot of different options open to you.

If you are looking for a small shrimp to keep in your tank with your celestial pearl danios then the following species would be our top 3 picks:

  1. Cherry Shrimp.
  2. Neon Yellow Shrimp.
  3. Blue Dream Shrimp.

You are also able to go with the slightly larger ghost shrimp or amano shrimp too but most people will stick to one of the three above due to their bright color.

We say “one of the three above” as all three of those shrimp are neocaridina shrimp meaning that they are able to cross breed with each other. As we covered in our article on letting neon yellow and cherry shrimp breed, their offspring will usually revert back to their wild type color and lose the bright color of either of their parents.

Should You Add Hides For The Shimp?

Although not essential in a tank with just celestial pearl danios, it can still be a good idea to add shrimp hides to the tank to allow your shrimp to get away and relax. The various hides can also offer your celestial pearl danios benefits too.

Here are some of the better hide options for a tank with celestial pearl danios and shrimp in it.

Shrimp Caves

The first option is the ever popular fluval shrimp cave. This is available in both small and large sizes and offers a place for your shrimp to hide away but also has an open top that your danios will be able to swim into too.

Live Or Fake Plants

If you have a lot of plants in your tank then these plants can offer some good hiding spots for your shrimp. Your danios will also be able to use these plants for refuge too so it can be a win-win situation.

Rocks And Driftwood

Another option that you have is to use bits of wood and rock to create some hiding spots in your tank. This can be anything from driftwood to pieces of slate that you have laying around.

Aquarium Decorations

You could even use old aquarium decorations that you no longer want as hiding spots too. Just make sure that there are no sharp edges on anything that you add to the tank.

Conclusion

We hope that you have found this article helpful and that it has given you some good ideas on what to do with your own celestial pearl danio and shrimp tank. As always if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. Thanks for reading!