[Frosty Fisher]

I have a heated 5.2 gallon tank with a live plant, substrate gravel, some fake plants, and 5 female guppies. I was wondering if it would be okay for me to add one or two small shrimp (It seems like amano / ghost shrimps are the smallest from what I've read), or if my guppies would attack / eat them, or vice versa.
Let me know if this is a good idea, or if there is some other kind of small bottom feeder that I can safely add.

 

[Zoidburg]

Dwarf shrimp as in red cherry shrimp are even smaller.


I wouldn't recommend amanos simply because they might crawl out of a tank that's too small. (need green/brackish/salt water to reproduce) Cherry shrimp, although smaller, if you have a healthy breeding population, they could easily over-run the tank.


Which leaves you with ghost shrimp. Ghost shrimp are unlikely to "successfully reproduce" in the tank (most aquariums are "too clean" for ghost shrimp breeding - larvae can't find enough food), and if they did produce larvae, the larvae would be guppy food.


If there are enough hiding places (real plants are recommended), it is possible to house guppies and shrimp together, although there could still be some predation.

 

[Frosty Fisher]

Dwarf shrimp as in red cherry shrimp are even smaller.


I wouldn't recommend amanos simply because they might crawl out of a tank that's too small. (need green/brackish/salt water to reproduce) Cherry shrimp, although smaller, if you have a healthy breeding population, they could easily over-run the tank.


Which leaves you with ghost shrimp. Ghost shrimp are unlikely to "successfully reproduce" in the tank (most aquariums are "too clean" for ghost shrimp breeding - larvae can't find enough food), and if they did produce larvae, the larvae would be guppy food.


If there are enough hiding places (real plants are recommended), it is possible to house guppies and shrimp together, although there could still be some predation.

Thank you so much for the input! I'd never seen much about cherry shrimp before.

I'll look a bit more into ghost and cherry shrimp, and see what the local pet stores have. Would it be best if my plants (fake and real) were a bit clumped together to give a little shelter area for the shrimp?

 

[Zoidburg]

It may help. Very bushy plants can provide good hiding spots, as well as driftwood and some tank decorations that provide shelter.

 

[Virc003]

Dwarf shrimp as in red cherry shrimp are even smaller.


I wouldn't recommend amanos simply because they might crawl out of a tank that's too small. (need green/brackish/salt water to reproduce) Cherry shrimp, although smaller, if you have a healthy breeding population, they could easily over-run the tank.


Which leaves you with ghost shrimp. Ghost shrimp are unlikely to "successfully reproduce" in the tank (most aquariums are "too clean" for ghost shrimp breeding - larvae can't find enough food), and if they did produce larvae, the larvae would be guppy food.


If there are enough hiding places (real plants are recommended), it is possible to house guppies and shrimp together, although there could still be some predation.

In the most constructive and friendly way possible, there are some parts to this comment I disagree with. All shrimp species metioned in this thread are dwarf shrimp. Amano shrimp are no more likely to crawl out of a tank than any other dwarf shrimp. Ghost shrimp breed in the same extremely generalized manner as any other hobbiest kept dwarf shrimp: mother carries eggs until they hatch; baby shrimp are smaller versions of adults; they eat, molt, grow and repeat until fully matured. So, if there is a problem with the tank being too clean to support ghost shrimp then no other species of shrimp is likely to survive either. Though, honestly this is not likely to be a problem in a properly maintained tank, as in don't do 100% water changes or remove all the gravel and scrub it clean, etc. There is a layer of microorganisms that will grow on anything put inside the tank that will more than feed a couple of shrimp. Though feeding them is definitely preferred.

My advice to op:
From my experience with dwarf shrimp, I would recommend amano shrimp. They are one of the bigger species and are more than capable of holding their own against guppies. However ghost shrimp are the cheapest, but they seem to be the most aggressive too. Cherries are fun to breed and while you can successfully breed them in the described setup, it will be very difficult because your guppies will eat the babies. Also, the more cover for the shrimp the better.

 

[Zoidburg]

All shrimp species metioned in this thread are dwarf shrimp.

Frosty Fisher thought that amanos and ghost shrimp are the smallest dwarf shrimp species. I only pointed out that there are smaller species of them.

Amano shrimp are no more likely to crawl out of a tank than any other dwarf shrimp.

I just wouldn't recommend a tank any smaller than 10 gallons for one or two amano. Not only that, but there have been recent posts about amano's crawling out of larger tanks... so I just wouldn't trust amano in a 5 gallon tank.

Ghost shrimp breed in the same extremely generalized manner as any other hobbiest kept dwarf shrimp: mother carries eggs until they hatch; baby shrimp are smaller versions of adults; they eat, molt, grow and repeat until fully matured.

Ghost shrimp and amano shrimp both have larvae stages. Cherry shrimp are born as miniature versions of the adults. I'm seeing many people having difficulty reproducing ghost shrimp in a typical tank since larvae don't feed the same way as adults or young cherry shrimp until they metamorphose into miniature adult versions.

 

[Nordic]

Endler guppies may be a better match for smaller shrimp.

 

[Frosty Fisher]

Thank you guys for sharing your opinions
I'm not really looking to breed any fish or shrimp at this point, so as long as all adults are able to live fine with each other, I'm good. if shrimp have babies and my guppies have live food for a bit, no complaints there. As for amano shrimp crawling out of my tank, would it still be a worry even though I have a hooded tank? Considering breeding is not a goal here, which shrimp is best to keep in a tank with guppies?

 

[Frosty Fisher]

Endler guppies may be a better match for smaller shrimp.

I'm not 100% sure, but I might actually have endlers... I looked up some stuff about them and my fish seem to pretty much fit the discriptions that I found. If this is the case, would there be a shrimp that would better get along with them? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I want to make sure I have a happy community going.

Bump:

Endler guppies may be a better match for smaller shrimp.

I'm not 100% sure, but I might actually have endlers... I looked up some stuff about them and my fish seem to pretty much fit the discriptions that I found. If this is the case, would there be a shrimp that would better get along with them? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I want to make sure I have a happy community going.

Bump: oops, didn't mean to post that twice

 

[Nordic]

I'd just make sure they can tolerate similar temperatures and water parameters first, should not be too hard to look up.

 

[Frosty Fisher]

I'd just make sure they can tolerate similar temperatures and water parameters first, should not be too hard to look up.

Thank you for the advice and for encouraging me to look up endlers, even if you didn't mean to

 

[Nordic]

Lol, yeah, it is sometimes less efficient to play the telephone game, than just guide people to the information they need...

Who knew being adult, was just looking a lot of stuff up on google?

 

[Frosty Fisher]

 

[FreshwaterAdvice]

Haha looking up stuff on Google is so much less entertaining than discussing it with people.

Plus the people here know so much more than your average google result.

 

[Byeiksar]

I have kept both amano and ghost shrimp in the community tank with neon,rummy nose,guppy,platy and some other tetras. Both amano and ghost shrimps are fine with them but I found ghost shrimps are quite aggressive and occupy a huge space.. I prefer amano as they are really peaceful..

 

[JustJen]

I kept cherry shrimp with guppies once - it didn't end well for the shrimp, adults included. I'd stick to ammanos or ghost shrimp. I have both in 5 gallon tanks and don't have any issues.

 

[Frosty Fisher]

I've added what I believe to be 5 ghost shrimp, and they've been doing fine for over a week now. I had one shed its exoskeleton the day after I got them, which freaked me out before I realized what had happened. Other than that quick scare, everything has been going perfectly well. I'll update if I have anything happen in the tank.

Thank you all for the helpful comments!

 

[Frosty Fisher]

Update:

I just got back from a 4 day trip, and I had someone else feeding my tank while I was gone.

When I went to feed my tank tonight, I noticed a dead shrimp on the bottom of my tank, and was wondering if someone could help me figure out the cause. I noticed that the shrimp seemed whiter and less transparent than it had been before. As far as I could tell it did not look like it had been picked on by my fish at all, but I won't rule that out completely.

I also noticed at feeding time tonight when my shrimp come out of hiding for food, that another one is turning whiter, and is hiding a lot more. I didn't manage to get a very good look at it, or notice behavior besides hiding.

Any and all feedback is appreciated!

 

[Zoidburg]

White insides can be a sign of a bacterial infection.

 

[Frosty Fisher]

White insides can be a sign of a bacterial infection.

Is there any way I can get rid of the infection? Or at least prevent my other shrimp from being affected by it?