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Guppies are among our hobby’s most vibrant fish. They are available in practically all shades of hue. A tank of male guppies in vivid colors often draws attention. The most intelligent shrimp in the hobby are most likely red cherry shrimp. These two species work wonderfully together. Is it possible for guppies and red cherry shrimp to coexist in the same aquarium?
Red cherry shrimp and guppies get along very fine, though you can expect the guppies to devour some of the shrimp. To increase your chances of success, offer the guppies and shrimp lots of food and cover.
For more than 30 years, I’ve kept and bred guppies, and I can’t recall a single day during that period when I didn’t have at least one aquarium in my fish room filled with guppies. I’ve only recently learned about the wonderful world of red cherry shrimp.
Why Would You Want to Separate Shrimp and Guppies?
You might wish to keep guppies and red cherry shrimp together for a few different reasons. First of all, keeping two species with such vibrant colors together can look fantastic. Guppies occupy every square inch of your tank and never stop swimming. This implies that you have a vibrant aquarium.
On the other hand, the red cherry shrimp will rest on the substrate, vegetation, and rocks and provide you with small patches of color.
Shrimp and Guppy Behaviors
Red cherry shrimp and guppies often keep their distance from one another. Guppies will swim almost all the way around the tank, but they rarely choose to be on the bottom. On the other hand, red cherry shrimp favor sitting on the substrate over floating higher in the water.
Unfortunately, some of the smaller cherry shrimp will be eaten by larger guppies, especially larger females. The good news is that the shrimp will breed quicker than the guppies and consume them if your tank is set up properly.
According to my observations, red cherry shrimp proliferate more quickly than guppies can consume them.
How Should a Guppy and Shrimp Tank Be Set Up?
Set up your guppy and red cherry shrimp tank with lots of hiding places. Make sure to arrange groups of rocks or aquarium-safe wood pieces. In this manner, you will have a large number of crevices where your cherry shrimp can reside without being accessed by guppies.
Additionally, live plants offer a ton of places to hide. Live plants with dense growth, such as java moss, wisteria, and Cryptocoryne, provide a lot of cover and line of sight obstructions to prevent the guppies from seeing the shrimp. In a tank with shrimp or guppy fish, out of sight, out of mind!
Making sure your filter isn’t sucking up cherry shrimp or young guppies is another thing to keep in mind when setting up your guppy and shrimp tank. Small shrimp can be sucked into the intake part of an external or hang-on-back filter. To prevent shrimp or fry from ascending the filter pipe, use a prefilter sponge.
What Food Should You Give Your Shrimp/Guppy Tank?
Guppies will consume nearly any fish food that is offered. In addition to frozen bloodworm, cyclops, and daphnia, I give my fish a mixture of flake meal, tiny pellets, and other things. The key to keeping your guppies healthy and vibrant is to feed them a variety of foods. Additionally, red cherry shrimp are not picky eaters.
What Additional Shrimps Can Coexist With Guppies?
There are also different species of shrimp that get along well with guppies.
Guppies enjoy having amanos as friends. Compared to red cherry shrimp, amano shrimp can reach sizes of up to 2 inches. Additionally, amano shrimp consume black beard algae, which is advantageous to the aquarist.
King Kong, Crystal, and Blue Dream shrimp can all coexist peacefully with guppies. Their needs would be quite comparable to those of the red cherry shrimp. But you should know that they are all significantly more expensive than red cherry shrimp.
With what other fish may cherry shrimp coexist?
Smaller, more tranquil fish will typically get along better with other fish than larger, more aggressive fish. You should generally steer clear of any fish that eats a lot of shrimp.
Dwarf gouramis and small tetras like neon, ember, and cardinal tetras will all be acceptable. Your shrimp won’t be bothered by the majority of pleco species either.
Bristlenose plecos make the ideal tank companions. Bristlenose plecos will eat dead shrimp, but they don’t usually go looking for them.
Additional probable tank mates are:
- heavenly pearl Danio \sChili Rasbora \sPygmy Corydoras
- Neon green Clown Killifish from Tetra
- Ember Tetra \sOtocinlus
- Norman Lampeyed Killifish Borneo Sucker Loach
- Cloud White Mountain Minnow
There are numerous instances of people raising shrimp and guppies in the same aquarium for breeding. It can be quite profitable, as I have experienced myself. Your guppy/shrimp tank will probably rank among your favorites, I virtually guarantee it!
