Livebearers and shrimp

[Matty24]

Can livebearers ( mollies and platys) and shrimp live together I've been reading/watching different things about it but as most things within the hobby it seems to be mixed reviews and experiences so does anyone have first hand experience?

Thanks for looking

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I do! Have kept shrimp with all of them. Guppies and platies are the easiest, they rarely seem to bother going for the little shrimp. Adult shrimp are safe from all of them, but shrimplets are vulnerable to almost any fish. So it's important to make sure there's plenty of hiding space for the shrimp. Hardscape with lots of tiny holes like dragonstone is great, dense planting of different kinds low to the substrate is essential.

Mollies are a bit more greedy. Always cruising looking for algae and tiny creatures to eat. But again, if there's a lot of cover for the shrimplets to reach a good size, and there aren't a whole huge pack of mollies, then enough shrimplets should make it to adult size to keep the colony going.

You find different answers online because it really does depend on the tank set up, amount of fish, amount of cover etc. If you add a few mollies to a tank that has an established shrimp colony, you'll almost certainly be fine. However if you add shrimp to a tank that has mollies, it'll be harder for those 10 or so shrimp to feel safe enough to breed, for enough shrimplets to survive and grow etc. Even in a tank with only guppies, it took my first batches of shrimp about 5-6 months to begin breeding. And those were just inexpensive cherry shrimp.

If you want to keep a fancy, expensive variety and colour morph, best not to risk keeping it with any fish that will eat shrimplets!

Alternatively, if you're thinking of wanting red/blue/yellow cherry shrimp or something, you could make a shrimp only set up, breed them in there for a while, then once you have a good number of them, transfer a load to the tank with mollies/etc. If that batch continue to do well and thrive, then either keep the original shrimp only tank plus shrimp with mollies, or transfer the rest and take down the shrimp tank.

Hope this is helpful! If you'd like to ask more questions, feel free, or if you want some tips for your set up, by all means post photos and we can make suggestions on how to make it more shrimp friendly.

 

[Colin_T]

Depends on the shrimp. Most shrimp will eat baby fish, and most adult fish will eat baby shrimp. So if you don't care about getting babies form the fish or shrimp, then it's fine to keep them together. But if you want baby shrimp or baby fish, then keep them on their own.

 

[Matty24]

I have 8 platys, 4 mollies and 2 ballon mollies and some snails, Tanks only been up and running nearly 2 months off the top of my head I'm going for an overgrown but managed looked plenty of hiding places everywhere, I am getting alot of fry which I knew would be the case so maybe having shrimp would help control the amount of fry I am getting I knew it would be the case with the fry but I want to see what kind of mix of fry I get, I'm currently setting up a fry tank to give the fish to friends and anyone who may want some fish for free locally, I'm just looking to keep everything as natural as possible for all things in the tank.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Depends on the shrimp. Most shrimp will eat baby fish, and most adult fish will eat baby shrimp. So if you don't care about getting babies form the fish or shrimp, then it's fine to keep them together. But if you want baby shrimp or baby fish, then keep them on their own.

Neocaridina being a threat to baby fish?
I added a few cherry shrimp to my cory egg container specifically because they will clean fungus from any eggs that fungus, while leaving the healthy eggs alone. They've stayed with the fry from the moment they hatched as wrigglers, and are cleaning up uneaten food while the fry are growing!

I've never heard of neos being a threat to baby fish, nor amanos.

There are a couple of predatory types of shrimp that are sometimes mis-sold as amanos. Those are the only ones I've heard of being a worry for fry. @Essjay , any thoughts?

 

[Essjay]

The 'long arm' shrimps are the predatory ones, and yes they are often mis-sold as amano and glass/ghost shrimps. These long arm shrimps are usually Macrobrachium species and as the common name suggests have longer 'arms' than the shrimps they are sold as.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

The 'long arm' shrimps are the predatory ones, and yes they are often mis-sold as amano and glass/ghost shrimps. These long arm shrimps are usually Macrobrachium species and as the common name suggests have longer 'arms' than the shrimps they are sold as.

Thanks @Essjay , I knew you'd know! I can never remember the latin name for that group of shrimp. Just knew that they look a lot like amanos or glass, but have super long front arm pincers that make them obviously predatory.

So you haven't heard of caridina or neocaridina being a threat to eggs or fish fry then?

 

[emeraldking]

I'm having shrimps combined with livebearers. And thusfar, no problems. But I wouldn't combine them with too large sized livebearers, though...

 

[Slaphppy7]

So you haven't heard of caridina or neocaridina being a threat to eggs or fish fry then?

Nope....never