After recently publishing our article going over keeping ghost shrimp with goldfish, we have noticed more and more people reaching out and asking about keeping cherry shrimp and goldfish together so we wanted to publish this article to help as many of our readers as possible.
With cherry shrimp seeing a massive spike in their popularity right now, we only expect people looking to keep cherry shrimp with their goldfish to increase in the future so hope this article can help you.
In the majority of tank setups that have both goldfish and cherry shrimp in them, there will be a large number of shrimp eaten by your pet goldfish and this is just a fact of life that is unavoidable.
Thankfully, there are a number of different steps that you are able to take to help prevent your goldfish from being able to eat the cherry shrimp in your aquarium to books the survival rate of your shrimp.
We have a dedicated article going over quick and easy shrimp hiding places that you can use to protect your cherry shrimp from your goldfish.
There are other options available though such as shrimp tubes and ceramic hides that are cheap, easy to use, and great at helping to protect your cherry shrimp from goldfish.
Will My Goldfish Eat My Cherry Shrimp?
Larger goldfish can and will eat cherry shrimp in their tanks but smaller goldfish can struggle to eat a cherry shrimp in their tank due to the shrimp being too large to get into the mouth of the fish.
If your cherry shrimp are breeding in your aquarium then smaller goldfish will be able to eat the juvenile cherry shrimp in their tank due to being so small and easy to eat.
Some people will add plants such as java moss in an attempt to protect their cherry shrimp from being eaten by their goldfish and this can work to some extent but a foraging goldfish will still be able to find and eat your cherry shrimp if it finds them.
This is why we recommend you go with something like shrimp tubes as it physically prevents the goldfish from being able to get into it due to their small size while being so small that your shrimp can get in and out without issue.
We have seen a number of people within the fish keeping hobby who have been able to help deter their pet goldfish from either their cherry shrimp by making sure that their goldfish are rarely hungry.
This strategy can work but it can be hit and miss, as it can be difficult to workout how much food you need to give to your goldfish as well as how frequently to prevent them from eating your cherry shrimp, and even then, between feeding some goldfish, will still go off to forage for food.
What Are The Best Shrimp For A Goldfish Tank?
There are a number of species of shrimp that can work well in a tank with goldfish provided you add various types of shrimp hides to the tank to help protect your shrimp and allow them to reproduce to replace the shrimp that get eaten.
The two best option are usually cherry shrimp or ghost shrimp but blue shrimp and neon yellow shrimp can also work well while also being retailed at a very similar price to cherry shrimp.
You have to realize that there will always be a number of shrimp that then up being eaten by your goldfish as it is natural for goldfish to forage for food, sometimes, even if they have just been fed.
The goal for anyone who does choose to keep cherry shrimp in the same aquarium tank as goldfish should be to set up an environment where the shrimp are able to breed in peace and at a rate where they are able to replace the shrimp they end up being eaten with baby shrimp.
Although we did recommend a number of different types of shrimp that can work well in an aquarium tank with goldfish, we would usually only recommend that you keep one type of shrimp in the tank.
This is because various types of shrimp are able to breed with each other and as we covered in our article on neon yellow shrimp breeding with cherry shrimp, the offspring usually revert back to their standard brown, wild color rather than keep the bright colors of their parents if they are a result of crossbreeding.
Can You Keep Cherry Shrimp And Goldfish In The Same Tank?
Although it can be a challenge to keep cherry shrimp and goldfish in the same aquarium tank as each other, it can definitely be done and many people within the fish keeping community do it.
Keeping any type of shrimp in a tank with goldfish is often easier for more experienced fish keepers though as they are often better at keeping to their feeding schedules to prevent their goldfish from foraging for food in their tank.
If you are new to the fish keeping hobby then you can look into keeping a no filter shrimp tank or a small 1 gallon shrimp tank rather than keeping your shrimp in the same tank as your goldfish.
Shrimp tanks are becoming increasingly popular and are one of the fastest growing tank types within the hobby right now due to so many photographs of cherry shrimp, blue shrimp, and neon yellow shrimp tanks going viral on social media increasing the awareness to keeping a tank with just shrimp in them.
Over the last six to twelve months, keeping shrimp in a biorb has become increasingly popular too offering another option for people to keep cherry shrimp and goldfish, just in different tanks.
If you are unable to accept that some of your cherry shrimp will end up being eaten if you keep them in the same tank as a goldfish then you will should be looking to keep two separate tanks and it is often much cheaper and easier than many people initially think.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over keeping cherry shrimp and goldfish in the same aquarium as each other to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand that although it can be done, there is a very high chance that at least a small number of your cherry shrimp will end up being eaten by your goldfish. In addition to that, if you are trying to breed your goldfish in your tank then your cherry shrimp will also likely eat your goldfish eggs reducing your fish yields when trying to breed them too.
