Fish ideas for guppy fry control

[Snackbacon]

Good morning! 

I have a heavily planted 40g tank that current houses guppies, corydoras, otocinclus, and cherry shrimp. I'm looking for ideas on fish to add that would help with the guppy fry population, but not decimate the cherry shrimp population. 

I have considered a betta or angelfish, but the stuff I've been reading is all over the place in terms of how this would actually work in my setup. I'm open to pretty much any idea.

[TheSwissAquarist]

Apistogramma will decimate both… but some kind of gourami could work really well. 

[Biotope Biologist]

You might have a tough time with that combo not eating shrimplets at least. But anchor cats are good fry control, they will eat shrimplets as well. But generally peaceful to your other stock.
 

 

Their main diet is worms but their eyesight is poor so anything that fits in their mouth and moves past them will get eaten.

 

[Snackbacon]

My LFS doesn't have apistos, but I do know they have some gourami. They at least have dwarf and honey, possibly more. Would the dwarf gourami be too aggressive for the adult guppies? And would the honey gourami be aggressive enough to seek out the fry?

[TheSwissAquarist]

I’d be impressed if you could find any fish that will eat guppy fry but not cherry shrimplets…a fish that only lives in the top half of an aquarium… African Butterfly Fish? Splash tetras?? Any biggish tetra could work…??

@brandonnaturally @Patrick_G @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

On 12/6/2022 at 5:45 PM, Snackbacon said:

My LFS doesn't have apistos, but I do know they have some gourami. They at least have dwarf and honey, possibly more. Would the dwarf gourami be too aggressive for the adult guppies? And would the honey gourami be aggressive enough to seek out the fry?

@Guppysnail has some; any comments?

[Snackbacon]

It would be fine if some of the smaller shrimp got picked off. I think there is enough cover that they wouldn't all get eaten. As long as the bigger shrimp are fine, I would be happy. 

[MattyM]

Danios might be an option. 

[Snackbacon]

Another thought I just had, I also could consider just moving my cherry shrimp to my 20g long. I currently have some in both tanks, but could move them all over. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:49 PM, Snackbacon said:

Another thought I just had, I also could consider just moving my cherry shrimp to my 20g long. I currently have some in both tanks, but could move them all over. 

Maybe try moving the majority over and see how the rest do? In that case Apistogramma would seem like a cool choice for the guppy population control. Alternatively just sell/give away the guppies.

[Snackbacon]

I do give some away, but I wouldn't mind having the additional help of something eating them. 

[Guppysnail]

I just got honey gourami. They are supposed to eat guppy fry. How true that is I’m uncertain. I’m not certain they are strong enough swimmers to catch fry in mass quantities but I can see them nabbing a few. My last girl is past birthing age…I think? They do eat my baby shrimplettes but not the adults. 
If you have cholla wood with moss or good shrimp hides they can’t get in your shrimp will be fine. You just may never see a mass population boom. So far I’m not seeing them eat more baby shrimp than my guppies. 

[Snackbacon]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:07 AM, Guppysnail said:

I just got honey gourami. They are supposed to eat guppy fry. How true that is I’m uncertain. I’m not certain they are strong enough swimmers to catch fry in mass quantities but I can see them nabbing a few. My last girl is past birthing age…I think? They do eat my baby shrimplettes but not the adults. 
If you have cholla wood with moss or good shrimp hides they can’t get in your shrimp will be fine. You just may never see a mass population boom. So far I’m not seeing them eat more baby shrimp than my guppies. 

That is interesting. Not being able to eat them in mass quantities would be something to consider. I'd get to keep some fry and the population managed.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I used a Dwarf Gourami to help keep the Platy fry population under control and it worked well, and the Gourami was fun. 

[Schuyler]

On 12/6/2022 at 8:45 AM, Snackbacon said:

My LFS doesn't have apistos, but I do know they have some gourami. They at least have dwarf and honey, possibly more. Would the dwarf gourami be too aggressive for the adult guppies? And would the honey gourami be aggressive enough to seek out the fry?

I would go for honey gourami in a community tank. I've heard dwarf and powder blue gorami are a 50/50 shoot at if you'll get a nice one or not

Edited December 14, 2023 by Schuyler

[evonner]

I'm just poking around. I'm new to this forum. I'm not breeding guppies yet but I was wondering if you have tried cutting back on your feedings to encourage the guppies to eat their own fry? A Betta or Anglefish I would not make that choice as both fish are aggressive and guppies are not and they will most like harm your adult guppies. 

[The endler guy]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:47 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I’d be impressed if you could find any fish that will eat guppy fry but not cherry shrimplets…a fish that only lives in the top half of an aquarium… African Butterfly Fish? Splash tetras?? Any biggish tetra could work…??

@brandonnaturally @Patrick_G @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

@Guppysnail has some; any comments?

butterfly fish will also eat adult guppies 

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:07 AM, Guppysnail said:

I just got honey gourami. They are supposed to eat guppy fry. How true that is I’m uncertain. I’m not certain they are strong enough swimmers to catch fry in mass quantities but I can see them nabbing a few. My last girl is past birthing age…I think? They do eat my baby shrimplettes but not the adults. 
If you have cholla wood with moss or good shrimp hides they can’t get in your shrimp will be fine. You just may never see a mass population boom. So far I’m not seeing them eat more baby shrimp than my guppies. 

I had 3 honey and 3 thick lipped in with my guppies at one point and they barely touched the fry. Maybe other types of gourami do but in my experience honey and thick lipped may take a couple but not many. They also would completely ignore them after 24 hours. It's almost like they were interested in only the easy to get ones. 

On 12/6/2022 at 1:07 PM, Schuyler said:

would go for honey gourami in a community tank. I'

 

I never actually put it into practice but when I first started with guppies my plan was to do fry control with a school of glotetras. I wonder if a school of any of the larger tetras (skirt, diamond, etc) would work. My thoughts there is it's multiple fish going for them and you aren't relying on just 1 who might turn out to not pay attention to them. 

[jwcarlson]

On 12/6/2022 at 10:47 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I’d be impressed if you could find any fish that will eat guppy fry but not cherry shrimplets…a fish that only lives in the top half of an aquarium… African Butterfly Fish? Splash tetras?? Any biggish tetra could work…??

@brandonnaturally @Patrick_G @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

@Guppysnail has some; any comments?

I watched one of my cardinal tetras eat a pretty big cherry shrimp this weekend.  And the kerri tetras were helping too.  

Personally, I like to see that as I have too many cherry shrimp anyway.  😄  The tank they're in has a nice sized rock pile and some coarse filter material (AC sponge filter and intake guard) and those are basically shrimplet hotels.  It wouldn't surprise me if there's 100 shrimplets living in each of those two items in the community tank.

 

Edit to add: When I had guppies I also had oscars (many years ago) and I would occasionally thin them out by scooping and giving them to the oscar.  I know that doesn't necessarily help if you don't have more than one tank.  But why not get a 75 and grow out an oscar to help get rid of some of your guppies?  That sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do as far as this hobby goes! 🤣 

Edited December 6, 2022 by jwcarlson

[Fish Folk]

Very hard to solve the Guppy fry excess without damaging the shrimp colony. If you build stone mounds in back corners, shrimp can at least hole up.

Ever consider a Killifish? I’m getting into them. Bred Emerald killis. Now I’m starting towards breeding these…

Blue Gularis. Fundulopanchax sjostedti. Can grow up to 5” long. African non annual. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/6/2022 at 8:54 PM, Aiden Carter said:

butterfly fish will also eat adult guppies 

They’re basically a small Arowana😉!

On 12/6/2022 at 10:37 PM, Fish Folk said:

Blue Gularis. Fundulopanchax sjostedti. Can grow up to 5” long. African non annual. 

Must. Find. Some. Of. Those. 

[PineSong]

I hated to do it but out of desperation added a baby angelfish to my female guppy/male platy tank to help end the stream of guppy fry. The tank is heavily planted and the only time I've seen the angel be attitudinal with the guppies and platies is at feeding time, and no actual nipping, just staking out space. Right now he is a bit bigger than a quarter, plus fins. He does eat fry.

There are also shrimp in the tank, and they have cholla wood hides. No population explosion which is okay by me because I raise shrimp in shrimp-only tanks. 

The angelfish will eventually get too large for the 20g tank he is in, so that is something to think about if you are considering an angelfish. I have a 29 to put mine in when he outgrows the 20 and a long term plan to upsize that tank eventually to a larger one.