Breeding Guppies and Shrimp together in a 20 Gallon tank

[hsyoon]

Is it possible to breed guppies and shrimp together in a 20 gallon? I also have a spare 5.5 gallon that I don't use, but I am going to purchase a 20 gallon tank used for around $50. For shrimp, I would breed neocaridina shrimp, and guppies, I could breed fancy guppies or I could buy a trio of Full Red Albino Guppies for $12 CAD. Are they easy to breed?

[Nuggets Beard]

You can keep guppies and shrimp in the same tank.  But don't expect too many shrimp babies.  Guppies are constantly foraging for food.  They will pick off baby shrimp easily.  I keep guppies and adult shrimp together, no problem.  Guppies are easy to breed unless you have water parameters at the extremes. 

[hsyoon]

@Nuggets BeardThank you, what if I put 2 separate breeding boxes, one for the shrimp and one for the guppy fry, will that work?

[Nuggets Beard]

You would only need one for the shrimp.  I've found that with enough hiding spaces you will be overloaded with guppy fry.  The baby shrimp are so small even very small guppies may be able to make snacks of them.  Not sure if you want breeding boxes in your tank though.  They take up space and would detract from the aesthetics of your tank.  If you could do 2 tanks I think that would be for the best.  You wouldn't have to worry about the shrimp at all and if you provide cover in the guppy tank you will be good there too, no breeding boxes necessary. 

[hsyoon]

@Nuggets BeardThank you! I'll probably go with that option.

[PedroPete]

I agree with @Nuggets Beard that the safest option to get the best, most numerous shrimp would be to use 5.5 gallon for shrimp and 20 gallon for guppies. Once you have enough larger shrimp being produced, you could always add some to the 20 gallon to try to start another colony - especially good if it takes a while for algae and biofilm to build up.

Another option could be to trick out your 20 gallon with a few different rock piles set up to provide lots of crevices and tiny caves that only the tiniest guppy fry could access. You could feed shrimp specific food close to this spot so that babies don't have far to go to find food (other than the biofilm and algae that grow on the rocks). You could do Vallisneria or dense-growing stems in/ around the rock piles, too, to further protect the shrimp. My tank that grows the most shrimp has an islandscape with lava rocks in the middle and then piles of java fern coming out (inspired by MulMung on YT).  I also have some hornwort floating on top, which the cherry shrimp LOVE picking through....

Oh ya, and MulMung keeps red albino guppies, too 🙂

Also, if you haven't kept guppies before, I would suggest choosing whichever you like the most so you get the most enjoyment - "mutt" or fancy guppies (multi colors, individual fish are very recognizable, etc.) OR full red albinos (a strain I personally think is gorgeous, but many fish would look exactly the same). I've heard that albino guppies are weaker or not as easy to care for, but I have no personal experience to add for you to consider. 

What color shrimp were you considering? I feel like a nice red or blue shrimp with a mix of guppies would look really nice. If you do full red albinos, the red Neocaridinas would not stand out so much from the red fish, so maybe go with a different shrimp color (unless you love red 🙂 ). 

[hsyoon]

On 12/30/2021 at 2:30 PM, PedroPete said:

I agree with @Nuggets Beard that the safest option to get the best, most numerous shrimp would be to use 5.5 gallon for shrimp and 20 gallon for guppies. Once you have enough larger shrimp being produced, you could always add some to the 20 gallon to try to start another colony - especially good if it takes a while for algae and biofilm to build up.

Another option could be to trick out your 20 gallon with a few different rock piles set up to provide lots of crevices and tiny caves that only the tiniest guppy fry could access. You could feed shrimp specific food close to this spot so that babies don't have far to go to find food (other than the biofilm and algae that grow on the rocks). You could do Vallisneria or dense-growing stems in/ around the rock piles, too, to further protect the shrimp. My tank that grows the most shrimp has an islandscape with lava rocks in the middle and then piles of java fern coming out (inspired by MulMung on YT).  I also have some hornwort floating on top, which the cherry shrimp LOVE picking through....

Oh ya, and MulMung keeps red albino guppies, too 🙂

Also, if you haven't kept guppies before, I would suggest choosing whichever you like the most so you get the most enjoyment - "mutt" or fancy guppies (multi colors, individual fish are very recognizable, etc.) OR full red albinos (a strain I personally think is gorgeous, but many fish would look exactly the same). I've heard that albino guppies are weaker or not as easy to care for, but I have no personal experience to add for you to consider. 

What color shrimp were you considering? I feel like a nice red or blue shrimp with a mix of guppies would look really nice. If you do full red albinos, the red Neocaridinas would not stand out so much from the red fish, so maybe go with a different shrimp color (unless you love red 🙂 ). 

Thank you so much for your help! Do you recommend any aquarium co op products? I am planning to ship some over to Canada, which is where I live.

[PedroPete]

You're welcome 🙂

Absolutely! I have seen a number of starter buying guides here on the forum, but I couldn't easily locate any either. Here are some items I would recommend:

• Heater & light
• Sponge filter and USB air pump
• Breeder box
• Not including an autofeeder, but I use them on almost all of my tanks 🙂
• Food: xtreme krill flakes, baby brine shrimp (once you get fry: easy fry food, )
• Multi-test strips and ammonia test strips
• Fritz water conditioner
• If you don't have very hard water, I would recommend using crushed coral in your filter or in the substrate.

I found a guppy care guide on the ACO blog, too, which may help you.

Maybe other people have good tips?

[Jawjagrrl]

I went with endlers for my shrimp setup instead of guppies. Beautiful, more hardy and can be kept a bit cooler like the neocaradinas tend to prefer (although that can depend on your shrimp source). From what I've read, male endlers are pretty safe even with shrimplets and that seems to be true so far for me. Females are larger and are more likely to eat them though. Thinking about starting a small colony of endlers in another tank and adding my cull shrimp to their setup.

I can vouch to the coop fry food! My nano fish and the shrimplets LOVE IT. The packaging is truly inspired as it can be dispensed with one hand. The easy green plant fertilizer is awesome too. As I need more hardware, the coop is my 1st stop from now on - really appreciate the work Cory puts into developing a product for the sake of making something BETTER, not just a branded version.

[Tedrock]

There is a way to breed shrimp and guppies together.  You need a mass of Java moss in tank that is large and dense. So dense that the guppies can’t penetrate into it.  This way baby shrimplets have cover and grow to be bigger than mouth size.  So start with shrimp first with moss then after the colony is thriving introduce the guppies.  The colony will continue with the dense moss mass. While not a shrimp factory it will be a sustainable colony.  Hope this strategy is helpful.

Ted K

Edited January 1, 2022 by Tedrock

[Levi_Aquatics]

I have 2 guppy + shrimp breeding aquariums -one is a 20 long with mutt guppies and the other is a 10 with purple mosaic guppies. The best thing you can do to make sure you get a lot of shrimp is use a lot of java moss and feed a ton so the guppies arent as hungry and dont prey on the smaller shrimp as much.