Adding Guppies to Shrimp Tank?

[Atom]

I am thinking of adding 2 or 3 male guppies to my cherry shrimp tank. Right now I have adult shrimp and about 10 or more baby shrimp that range in size from 0.35" to 0.5" in size.

At what size do you think it is safe to add guppies without losing any shrimplets? I'm not worried about future shrimp babies, just the current ones I want to keep alive.

Also, I haven't had guppies in a long time. I seem to recall them being poop machines when I was younger. Is that true?

[trevorhoang]

guppies would pick on the younger shrimps. i had to remove my juvie guppies because they were picking on my shrimps. imo, the younger shrimps will live a stressfull life and will die sooner with guppies in the same tank.

my guppies dont seem to poop too much.

[Morainy]

I have endlers and cherry shrimp in the same tank. I found that when the endlers were juveniles, they lived happily with the cherry shrimp and many babies were produced. I happily looked forward to keeping endlers and cherry shrimp together forever and ever.

But...

Once the endlers matured -- particularly once the females became quite large and pregnant -- that was the end of baby shrimp. Adult shrimp seem to still survive but the tank is heavily planted with water sprite and there are many floating plants as well.

I think that large male guppies would eat your shrimp if they could spot them and catch them. The shrimp might be alright if your Ebi is very well planted, but this includes some plants at the top of the tank because shrimp seem to like to wander up there.

[Atom]

I guess I'll have to wait a few months till the shrimp are much bigger.

Thanks for the responses.

[Morainy]

You know, Atom, I take back what I said about the endlers eating shrimp. I've been watching my biggest endlers ignore my shrimp ever since you posted. Yes, I did lose lots of baby shrimp to pregnant endler mamas last year, but they don't seem to be touching any shrimp past the teeny stage. I think you could risk it...

[couch]

I don't think male guppies, especially male fancy guppies, would have any consequences in a shrimp tank. Now a days the tails on those guys get so big they can barely swim properly.

[Ursus sapien]

I had my 'spare' male endlers in with my blue pearl shrimp for a while with no issues. I don't think the endlers ever even looked at the shrimp.

It worked so well I tried to do the same with a couple spare female killies... with not so good results.

[Atom]

I was at Aquariums West today looking at the guppies and I was thinking to myself "Oh what big mouths you have." Most of the shrimplets are bigger now, but I think I will wait another week before deciding whether or not to add them. So far all the endlers I have seen are much smaller than guppies, which may be better. Aren't they usually the same size as guppies or was I just seeing juvenile endlers?

Btw, are shrimplets suppose to be different in size? I have a huge range in size just from one spawn/clutch/litter (not sure what the term is here). Some are half the size of the others. Males and females perhaps? Though some of the smaller ones are a deeper red than the bigger paler ones.

Thanks for the replies.

[punchbuggy]

I would say no. I had endlers, and those females are vicious. They picked all the babies. After awhile even the bigger shrimp hid for cover when the mamas swam by. Less stress get something else. cardinals? rasboras?

[wsl]

I couldn't recommend it, but you might get lucky if your shrimp are big enough. I'm sure any newborns will be at risk of being eaten though.

Are you sure the shrimplets are not from different clutches? That big of a size difference would make it seem like the smaller ones are for sure from a later batch of eggs...