tipzythegreat Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 (edited) I have a 29 gallon heavily planted and fully cycled tank. I have 4 nerites, 10 neocaridina shrimp, countless rams and 5 cross bred mollies- 4 female, one male. My tank is around 76 degrees. I intended to keep a female only tank but one of my baby mollies was a late bloomer and is a he. So far no babies (fish are all just over a year old). I was debating guppies or platys. I love the sunset male guppies but I don't want my females to get harassed. I like female platys but I also don't want to endanger my shrimp. Several are quite small and new to the tank. My thought was guppies will almost definitely leave my shrimp alone. But platys won't. But am I limited to female only guppies? Sorry guppy girls, but the ones at my store are boring (they are doing 50% off fish for a remodel) ETA: would like to avoid babies! Edited September 12 by tipzythegreat Want to avoid babies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 If you wish to avoid babies try a non-livebearer. Beckfords pencil fish Psuedomugil luminatus or gertrudae, Celestial Pearl danio, cherry barb even ricefish will work since your mollies will clean up those hatchlings the ricefish do not eat. I keep all of these with shrimp to no poor impact all adaptable to many parameters including hard water and 76 is a great temperature for all. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted September 12 Author Share Posted September 12 I have heard cherry barbs can be aggressive? How many do you keep? The celestial pearl Danios are gorgeous. My store has only long finned ones right now. I haven't seen any of the others- man are those neat! I suppose I could take the more expensive road and have my local non chain order them for me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 On 9/12/2024 at 8:33 AM, tipzythegreat said: I like female platys but I also don't want to endanger my shrimp Honestly, I’m surprised you can keep mollies with the shrimp. Platys would be smaller than mollies, but bigger than guppies. I don’t keep shrimp, but I do keep platys. My daughter wants the mollies. And knowing me, she’s probably going to get them. 😂 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 On 9/12/2024 at 9:30 AM, tipzythegreat said: I have heard cherry barbs can be aggressive? How many do you keep? The celestial pearl Danios are gorgeous. My store has only long finned ones right now. I haven't seen any of the others- man are those neat! I suppose I could take the more expensive road and have my local non chain order them for me. I keep a bakers dozen cherry barbs in a 40 gallon with psuedomugil gertrudae Aru II, Bolivian ram community and shrimp. My cherry barbs are so peaceful. I know it’s tempting in this economy to go the cheaper route. However these fish you will have for a long time. Investing a few dollars more in something you will enjoy is worth every penny. With egg laying fish in the future as your colony ages if you choose it’s easy to hatch a few to replace those that age out instead of spending more money to replace them. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted September 12 Author Share Posted September 12 On 9/12/2024 at 9:39 AM, Tony s said: Honestly, I’m surprised you can keep mollies with the shrimp I am ALSO surprised. They all seem scared of each other. I've had the mollies since they were teeny fry and they prefer to eat my plants over the shrimp. I'm talking jungle val, water sprite, camboda, pennywort, anacharis... and more. I guess they are vegetarian mollies. On 9/12/2024 at 9:42 AM, Guppysnail said: these fish you will have for a long time. Investing a few dollars more in something you will enjoy is worth every penny. You're not wrong. I quit fishkeeping until my sisters molly had 10 babies and I felt bad for her, lol. I'll visit the store again and see what they have. They did have barbs and the long finned danio were neat. I just really liked those blasted guppies LOL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 @tipzythegreat I took some video of my CPD and cherry barbs. The gertrudae are in the back playing in roots. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted September 12 Author Share Posted September 12 Thank you for taking the time to video and post it! I definitely like the look of the cherry barbs more. Love the shrimps swimming around -- they are so entertaining. It looks like with Danios or cherry barbs I need to get about 6. Sound right? I'll set up a quarantine and look around. I'd like some more fish in my tank to watch, but I don't want to jeopardize my mollies or my shrimp. I really love my shrimp LOL they are so cute. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 Cherry Barbs are a great choice. I also keep White Clouds and they get along with all my fish. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted September 12 Author Share Posted September 12 No issues with Cherry Barbs and Shrimp? I've seen some articles saying they will eat shrimp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 The adult cherry barbs may be able to pick off a new hatch shrimp if they ventured out of hiding to soon. However their mouths are entirely too small to bother juvenile or adult shrimp. Most baby shrimp will hide where the mom releases them ie moss inside sponge filters cholla wood rock piles etc until they molt a few times. My shrimp survive even though I also have 6 full grown chunky monkey Bolivian rams in the tank also. Just to say a previous post mentioned mollies not being shrimp friendly the mollies are much more likely to pick off shrimp then cherry barbs 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 Are all barb varieties ok? They were out of cherry but had golden, tiger and a couple other varieties. I got 6 long finned danio for now but would like to eventually get some barbs! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 Tiger barbs are a bit grumpy. Can be horrible fin nippers. Depending on what you keep them with. Very active. When kept in very large groups they can do very well. At least 15. An all barb tank is amazing.tons of color and activity. For more peaceful barbs you want cherry barbs, snakeskin barbs, odessa barbs. Black ruby barbs. Possibly melon barbs. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted Friday at 02:02 AM Author Share Posted Friday at 02:02 AM Thank you for your help! I didnt see any of those I don't think. Tons of tiger. Some gold. Glo barbs, of course. If I add cherry barbs in another month or so, would my tank be okay bioload wise? I do a weekly WC of 7-8 gallons. If so- how many should I add? Current inhabitants: 5 mollies 6 long finned danio 4 nerites 2 female amanos 10 mixed neocaridina shrimp Tons of rams Tons of plants 29 gallon Tank has been running since February 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted Friday at 02:58 AM Share Posted Friday at 02:58 AM You have a lot of space available. The snails and shrimp don’t add a lot of bio load. But you still have to clean after them. It depends on what you want the star of your tank to be. Do you want it to be cherry barbs or mollies? I might do 6 to start with. More females than males. see how that works out and add from there after a while. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted Friday at 01:16 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 01:16 PM I like my mollies, but all but one are black. So you don't really SEE them. That's why I was excited for the cherry barbs -- they really do seem to be the ~star~. I think the danios will pop out, but they are so small. What's your recommendation on QT? I have them in a 2.5 right now but I bought a 10 gallon to move them to. Honestly I'm going out of town in 2 weeks so I'm trying to figure out how to make this work and keep them safe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted Friday at 01:45 PM Share Posted Friday at 01:45 PM Those mollies will start having babies, do you have a plan for fry? Also I’d be super surprised if your shrimp make it. Danios and mollies have always decimated any shrimp in the tank. The Danio’s harassed my amano shrimp so bad, I had to move it. It was annoying to watch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted Friday at 05:01 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 05:01 PM If my mollies start having babies, the males will go to my sister and I'll keep the females to the best of my ability. I'm sure my LFS would take them, worst case. I thought Danios would behave. I didn't realize they liked to chase. My shrimp tend to hang out in wads of guppy grass so I'm hopeful they'll be OK. I'm already in it now. I suppose I could return the Danios but it seems like any fish I get will be a risk... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWilk Posted Friday at 05:40 PM Share Posted Friday at 05:40 PM White cloud minnows. 100% peaceful. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted Friday at 06:40 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 06:40 PM They breed easily, though? And I think my tank is a little warm for them? Still an option -- I can keep my eyes peeled for them. I definitely didn't see them last night, but I've got 7 or 8 stores in my area I could call or visit. As my 10 gal QT cycles with my danios, I'm trying my very best to avoid running 2 tanks.... I hope it's not inevitable! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyxxl Posted Friday at 07:03 PM Share Posted Friday at 07:03 PM On 9/12/2024 at 9:30 AM, tipzythegreat said: I have heard cherry barbs can be aggressive? How many do you keep? The celestial pearl Danios are gorgeous. My store has only long finned ones right now. I haven't seen any of the others- man are those neat! I suppose I could take the more expensive road and have my local non chain order them for me. Most barbs are nippy if kept in very small groups. I have barbs cherry, black ruby, and Tiger Barbs and no aggression to speak of but they are in large groups of each. The cherry barbs are beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipzythegreat Posted Friday at 07:24 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 07:24 PM Your tank looks very nice! It looks like if I add 5 barbs my tank will be over capacity. I guess we'll see what happens in the next few months with what I've got. I'm kind of regretting not searching for barbs now! These danios better dazzle me 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted Friday at 11:06 PM Share Posted Friday at 11:06 PM Great thread! Very informative! But I must say my favorite part is at the beginning, in the photo:... SEA-LOON... and....FIN INN HA HA Love it !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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