Cherry Shrimp and Guppies

[TC33]

So......

I have a tank already with guppies and cherry shrimp. Both have lived happily together since I have had them.
Today I thought I would add some more Cherry shrimp and went to my local to pick some up.

At the store I was told I should not really have cherry shrimp with guppies as guppies are well known to eat them.

Now in truth, I probably did the bad thing here and bought them anyway (I would not normally go against the fish shop advice)
However I just found it a little overkill on dramatics and goes against my own lived experience with what I already have in not witnessing anything, even minor harressment before.
That and the shop never gave me this advice the first time around when buying cherry shrimp.

Coming home I go to my good friend google and actually many articles do suggest this as a problem. That being said if I type any statement into google for confirmation or refutal I will get it.

So what are other peoples experiences? Did I get it wrong?

 

[Magnum Man]

I have some platy’s in my cherry shrimp tank…
And when I bought a scud colony, it came with several “feeder guppies” … scuds are smaller than cherry shrimp…

 

[gwand]

In one tank I have neocaridina with platys and Mollys. The tank is heavily planted. So far everyone gets along. Plenty of hiding spots for baby shrimp.

 

[MaloK]

The only problem I could see is if they are not breeding or the babies gets all eaten.

It need a little basic setup to insure that babies are able to survive.

 

[emeraldking]

I have shrimp living harmoniously with tuxedo red guppies for years.
It's a general rule. For every kind of fish can be a potential shrimp killer. Mostly when the shrimp is getting a new scale. When shrimps are peeling, it takes about 24 hours to let the new scale harden. So, when the new scale is still soft, they can become potential victims. But it's a matter of trying and see how those fish will react on those shrimps. So, it can go bad but it can also be a harmonious combination.

 

[hamfistUK]

So the store were both right and wrong at the same time. Guppies should not harass adult shrimp at all, so your current shrimp will be fine. However, they will eat shrimplets if they can find them, so your shrimp colony may not grow or even maintain its numbers over time if all the shrimplets are eaten. The good news is that with enough plant cover, the rate of shrimp reproduction should be able to keep up with the shrimplet predation by the guppies.

 

[JackGulley]

If you keep shrimp with fish, some of the shrimp babies will inevitably be eaten. But as long as you provide cover so some can survive, you’ll be fine. A guppy can’t eat an adult Cherry shrimp.

 

[Uberhoust]

I just removed the guppies from my shrimp tank this weekend. The shrimp population was primarily adults, with the majority of the juvenile shrimp being consumed. With the guppies in the tank I found I had a lot more algae issues because I had to feed a lot more, more nutrient in the tank, and there were not the numbers of shrimp to feed on the developing algaes than when I had only shrimp in the tank. It was also harder to keep the nitrate levels down. I have been watching for shrimpets, I had over 7 berried females I had been watching, but I kept seeing the females get berried but then no juvenile shrimp. Early last weekend I watched one of the larger female guppies find and consume a bunch of young shrimp in seconds and made the decision to remove the guppies into a new tank. I am hoping with the guppies gone that my shrimp tank will go back to a nice lower maintenance tank it used to be.

It really depends on what you want. The guppies will co-exist with the shrimp, but the guppies also keep the population of shrimp low. I also wanted to see things like seed shrimp with my Neos, but with the guppies this is not possible.

 

[MaloK]

@Uberhoust gives all the points that made me go against putting fish in my Cherry tank.

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[BrianK]

I have shrimp with all kinds of fish. They do okay although the babies will sometimes disappear. Enough survive so the population keeps growing anyway if you have enough mosses and subwassertang to hide them