Can Corydoras Live With Shrimp in the same Tank? The Answer

In my 20 gallon / 100 liter aquarium I was housing a small school of 5 corydoras, when my friend came to me and offered me some shrimp as he was breeding them. I did not know whether they would be able to live together, so I first did my research and this is what I found out.

Can corydoras live with shrimp in the same aquarium? Yes, they can! Corydoras and shrimp are great tank mates. There is a slight chance that the corydoras are going to eat a baby shrimp or two, but your shrimp population will increase.

But does this go for any shrimp and any corydoras species? Of course there are some differences, especially when it comes to size. This is what the rest of the article will be about.

Neocaridina shrimp (cherry shrimp etc)

The shrimp that I was the most worried about were the Neocaridina genus shrimp. Fancy words, but these shrimp are the common cherry shrimp and all the different colors. Other popular colors include blue, yellow, orange, ghost shrimp and more.

These shrimp are the shrimp that are able to breed in fresh water. This is why I was worried, because this means that the shrimp are going to lay eggs and have tiny little baby shrimp. I was assuming that the corydoras would hunt them all down, but this is not the case.

From experience of many other fish keepers that actually have kept corydoras together with neocaridina shrimp we can conclude that there is no problem in keeping them together. This is also what I have been doing for a couple of years now.

Now let’s quickly go through the other popular shrimp genus called caridina shrimp.

Caridina shrimp with corydoras

Within the caridina genus you will find shrimp like Japonica, super crystal red, golden bee and many more. These shrimp are generally known to be more picky concerning the water conditions. More sensitive might be a better way to put it.

So can you also keep these together with corydoras? Yes, you can. I want to give you a tip to provide a lot of hiding spaces for both the shrimp and the corydoras as this will make them feel comfortable in the tank.

Also, it is only obvious that more hiding spaces and more moss/live plants will give your shrimp more spaces to feel safe and give birth to babies. This is something you want right?

Does this go for all corydoras?

Well, there are many many subspecies of corydoras. For all the common popular subspecies that people keep in their aquariums, you are fine to keep shrimp with them.

With common subspecies I mean the corydoras salt and pepper, panda’s, julii, sterbai and all the other species that you can find in your local aquarium store.

However, I went to a big (huge) aquarium shop recently where they kept all kinds of more exotic fish including some of the biggest corydoras catfish I have ever seen. Frankly, I don’t even know what they are called. But I know that I would not put my expensive and tiny shrimp in the same aquarium as those fish.

Just remember that size is very import when it comes to aquarium fish. Bigger fish will eat smaller fish. Where corydoras are busy all day looking and sifting through the sand, when they are big enough they will definitely eat shrimp.