AAE Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 I have a 100 gallon tank that will have a small number of guppies and platys (initially, until nature takes its course). It is planted and receives injected CO2 - the tank should be densely planted once the plants grow in. I want to control the eventual livebearer population. I would also like to have amano shrimp. I am considering swordtails or a group of praecox rainbow fish as I am guessing either would do a fairly good job of eating fry. Do you think swordtails could live with amano shrimp? Do you think praecox rainbow fish could live with amano shrimp and guppies? Thanks for considering my question. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 On 8/28/2024 at 3:37 PM, AAE said: Do you think praecox rainbow fish could live with amano shrimp and guppies? I haven't tried that combo before. But it should work just fine. I know for a fact they're good at controlling angel fry. And they have such small mouths and are non-aggressive, so they should be fine with the bigger amano shrimp. As for water parameters, I wouldn't hesitate about putting praecox in guppy water. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichNJ Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 (edited) I think swordtails and pre-cox would both be adequate fry hunters. I've used zerbra danios recently for the same fry control reason (fast and hardy fish), and thinking about swordtails too. Want to see if I can get amanos to survive in my first prior to adding swordtails. I think swordtails might go after small amanos if they had a chance. Edited August 29 by RichNJ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmare Posted August 30 Share Posted August 30 For quite a while I had a singe molly living with my guppies as fry control and that worked perfectly! I still had cherry shrimp breeding in that tank, so Amanos would be fine 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwnedn00b Posted August 30 Share Posted August 30 If the Amano are very large, you could probably get away with Bolivian Rams. I've heard they're pretty tolerant of harder water. If the Amano are smaller, I'd go with Scarlet Badis. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted August 30 Share Posted August 30 I'd expect these fish to completely annihilate the fry rather than just keep the numbers down. In my experience, guppies will populate to the size of the take. So, if it's full of guppies, the babies won't have anywhere to hide. That's not everyone's experience but if you feed every other day of have a fairly open tank the guppies will be more inclined and able to control pop, while one swordtail will just wipe out the little guys Also so of these fish may nibble guppy tails 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyxxl Posted August 30 Share Posted August 30 A good rule is bigger fish will try to eat anything that they can fit in their mouth. So the shrimp might become snacks if they are not big enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted August 30 Share Posted August 30 Swordtails will help control the guppy fry population, but unless you only have males, you'll need something to control the swordtail fry population. They're as prolific as the guppies given the chance and in a heavily planted tank their fry will survive in large numbers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AAE Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 Sounds like the best option to try first is to not feed the tank from time to time and let nature and hunger take its course. I know all wild animals go hungry at times and that is the way of the world, but it is hard for me to not feed the fish every day. Time to toughen up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 On 8/31/2024 at 12:31 AM, AAE said: Sounds like the best option to try first is to not feed the tank from time to time and let nature and hunger take its course I don’t even think you have to fast them. All of the fish in there are going to go after fry. Whether they’re hungry or not. Kind of like cats and birds/mice. Cats don’t hunt because they’re hungry. Cats hunt because they’re cats. Same with fish, fry get disappeared unless they have a lot of hiding spots. Whether the adults are hungry or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWilk Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 I keep a mixed tank of livebearers, the big 4. Guppy/Molly/Platy/Swordtail. The guppies get picked off very quickly. I have only had 2 fish grow to size. I have a large group of medium sized platy babies, 10-20 swordtails that have just started developing their sword tails, zero mollies (no males) and guppies don’t live long enough to see them grow, generally. I recommend the swordtails. They don’t pick on plants like the mollies do. Their mouths are very small, so long as the amano shrimp are big enough, they’ll be fine. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AAE Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 @Tony s thank you! I appreciate your perspective! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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